Star Eater
by Saturnalius
Summary: The dust had finally settled after Bowser's last attempt at taking over. The kingdoms of Mushroom World would finally see some happiness as Daisy finally prepares for her perfect wedding. But peace is short lived in the World as an ancient being makes the planet its next target, swallowing Peach and Daisy's closest friends and threatening everyone's existence.
1. In the shadows of a celebration

The lands of the Mushroom World felt peaceful, for once. Bowser had retreated back to his land after the last bitter defeat, taking his Koopa Troop with him. This left the Mushroom Kingdom to some more peaceful times, despite Bowser's recent attempt to overthrow the place. The sky was blue, dotted only by a few happy clouds drifting in the subtle breeze. Flowers had begun to rebloom in the warm spring air.

Peach stood at the castle entrance, watching her toad people bustle about on the busy streets nearby. They had busied themselves with rebuilding the toad houses which had gotten crushed in the most recent siege by Bowser. Peach had generously funded the rebuilding projects, paying for all materials and supplies needed so that no toad would go without a house. She certainly couldn't have any of her people homeless. Several yoshi had arrived to help with the heavy lifting, and even some native koopa troopas had shown up to help with the effort.

The last few months felt a bit lonely, despite all the company and rebuilding. Mario and Luigi had left the castle to help rebuild other parts of the Kingdom, and Daisy had returned to Sarasaland to take care of business on her end. Her only companion who remained was a single Luma who stayed by her side.

"Peach! PEEEAAAACH!" The words echoed across the courtyard. Peach looked up to see Daisy running up the walkway pulling her dress and several layers of petticoats up with her hands so she wouldn't trip in the process. Unlike Peach, Daisy tended to not act very lady like, running like a maniac in her formal dress and heels.

"It's so good to see you, Daisy!" Peach exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly and delicately. It had been lonely without her excitable friend around. True, Peach had been busy with the restoration of Toad Town, but it was always nice to have her companion to keep her company. It kept things from getting too lonely or sad.

Daisy reached Peach and pulled off her glove, holding out her hand proudly. On her ring finger was a new ring, somewhat masculine, featuring an engraved vine-like pattern with yellow diamonds embedded into engraved flowers. The ring suited Daisy's tomboyish nature, being rather smooth so she could wear it all the time and not ruin it playing sports or gardening. "Tada!"

"Oh my!" Peach exclaimed, taking Daisy's hand to get a better look. "That's gorgeous!" Daisy wasn't the type to wear rings, so this certainly had to be something special and important. "Did Luigi finally propose?" It was the only logical conclusion, though Luigi was far too reserved and shy to do something like that. Perhaps Mario had encouraged him to do it. The two did deserve to be together and finally be happy.

"Ha!" Daisy laughed loudly. "He didn't propose. _I did._" She proudly placed her other hand on her hip. It was a triumph in her book. She wasn't really the traditional type, waiting for Luigi to propose. She took the initiative and did it herself. Luigi had no hesitation in accepting the proposal. He wanted to be with her as much as she with him. He simply couldn't put it into words, so Daisy did it for him.

Peach placed a hand over her mouth to delicately laugh. How typical this was of Daisy. She really should've expected it. "That's wonderful!" Either way, she was happy her best friend was getting married. She would finally find happiness and companionship. "We must celebrate!"

"You bet!" Daisy agreed. She really didn't need an excuse for partying, but this time, it felt more like it had to happen than something to keep from getting bored. She felt a sudden tugging on her skirt, then looked down to see Toadette pulling on her.

"Can I see? I want to see your ring!" Toadette requested. She wasn't the only one who'd come to see what the commotion was all about. Many of the toads and even several yoshi had begun to gather around. Even a few koopa had come over.

Daisy withdrew her hand from Peach's admiring grip and knelt down, offering her hand for Toadette to see. Toadette admired it, as did several others who began crowding around her to get a good view.

"Oh it's so beautiful, princess!" Toadette exclaimed. "I want one too!"

"Oh who to invite for the celebration," Peach continued their earlier conversation, placing a thoughtful finger on her cheek. "Certainly all our close friends and everyone we know."

"No bad guys!" Daisy added sharply. She didn't want anything or anyone interfering.

"Bowser is most certainly not invited," Peach affirmed with a sage nod. After his last stint, she didn't particularly want to see him. He'd caused enough trouble already, trashing the place and leaving many homeless. She wouldn't have all their noble efforts be undone so quickly.

"Well 'course not him," Daisy agreed. "I'm talking about those Wa's. That Waluigi really creeps me out. Remember how awkward it was the first time we met at one of Mario's Parties?"

Waluigi had an odd way of looking at people, staring seemingly at something or perhaps nothing at all. The way he could unhinge his jaw and those stringly limbs of his were unsettling at best. Daisy was pretty sure he had a thing for her, not that anyone could confirm or deny this. Waluigi had a strange tendency to talk in third person with that irritating arrogance. He never really spoke emotions or anything deep, and only seemed to talk about bob-ombs and cheating.

There was also this odd rivalry the two had with the Mario brothers. Daisy didn't want either Wario or Waluigi stirring up trouble and ruining the party. She'd have to kick them out herself. Literally. Even if she had to do it in her wedding dress and high heels.

"Mario usually invites them," Peach added, tapping her cheek again. What did he see in them? True, Wario had helped before, but he had a bad tendency to torment Toad. Waluigi was the oddball, but he usually stuck with Wario as if they were brothers. Mario was just too generous and forgiving, reaching out to even their enemies for a friendly game or race. Then again, Peach was too, often forgiving indiscretions for the sake of camaraderie.

"Bah," Daisy dismissed the idea, making a rather unhappy waving motion with her hand. Besides, the two princesses could arrange the party and invite who they wanted. "I'd rather they didn't come. They'd probably try to steal the gifts or something dumb like that."

"I suppose," Peach added. It did make sense. They were driven by money and thievery. She could pay them off not to come if need be. It seemed a bit underhanded, but she wanted to see Daisy and Luigi happy, and if that's what it took, then so be it.

"Strike up a guest list, my lady!" Toadsworth announced. "I'll begin preparations!"

...

The week since the announcement went by so quickly. The toads had finished the restoration of the village and began quickly decorating the castle and the surrounding town, stringing up flower decorations and dozens of paper lanterns in the shapes of daisies and stars. While Daisy wasn't their princess, she meant a lot to Peach, which meant she was important to them too. And it was hard to pass up a good celebration anyway.

Friends from all over Mushroom world had shown up for the party. Mario and Luigi returned from their restorative efforts elsewhere in the kingdom, and even Rosalina had taken time out from her galactic voyage to attend.

Luigi had dressed up a bit for the occasion. He wore a dark blue bowtie over a green formal jacket and blue pants. It looked a bit silly, but Daisy found it cute, planting a large kiss on his cheek affectionately. He bashfully kicked at the floor, blushing.

The celebration began with copious amounts of food. A band played on the stage in the main ballroom, playing various happy tunes as attendees danced about. The troopa with the guitar was very good, carrying on a very chipper tune. Peach spotted Rosalina across the room, being a wallflower as she floated at the edge of the dance floor with a cup of punch. "Oh this won't do," Peach frowned.

Mario looked up at her. "Something wrong?"

"Rosalina," Peach pointed out. "She looks so lonely. Let's invite her to dance with us." Mario quickly agreed, nodding his head, and the two wove through the dancing couples towards Rosalina. Peach offered her hand to her, hoping she would accept the offer. "Dance with us?"

A slight smile crossed her lips as Rosalina placed her hand in Peach's. "Certainly." She didn't give the offer a second thought. Mario was one of her closest friends, and she'd quickly grown attached to Peach. Dancing with them felt only natural. She wasn't well versed in the art, but that didn't seem to matter. Just moving and having a good time felt like the only objective.

...

"Fore!" On the nearby Castle Grounds golf course, Wario attempted to put his ball out of another sand trap. The ball bounced upward, collided with the edge of the trap, then rolled back to where it had started.

"Wahaha!" Waluigi laughed. He'd crouched down, resting an elbow on one knee and a hand on his golf club as he crouched down to watch Wario's rather futile attempts at golfing.

"Like you could do better," Wario threw the golf club on the ground. Neither was particularly good at this game. They never were. Those blasted Mario brothers were so good at it, the skills they had, that form and prowess. Curse them for being so good.

"Ha!" Waluigi laughed again, standing up and taking a position beside his ball in an attempt to put. "Waluigi just cheats better." He pulled the club back then swung it forward, almost as if he were hitting a baseball at an odd angle. Sure enough, the ball took flight, though not quite in the direction he'd planned. A breeze picked up, pushing the ball square into the lake.

"WAAAH. I hate this game!" Waluigi shouted in frustration, throwing the club. If it hadn't been metal, he would've snapped the thing in half by now. Sudden cheering from the nearby castle caught his attention, drawing him away from his frustrated thoughts. "Wha?"

Wario managed to pull himself out of the sand trap then proceeded to beat the sand out of his hat furiously. "What is it?"

"They're having a party," Waluigi pointed out, "without us."

Wario's attention snapped to the castle. Sure enough, there was a party. Without them. So that was the origin of the festive music they'd been hearing all afternoon. "Feh, who needs them anyway?" he frowned, shoving his finger up his nose. The two had been invited to most of the events in the past few years, invited to everything from golfing to kart racing, but suddenly that wasn't the case. They'd been left out.

It was to be expected, really. The two were villains, there to cheat their way to the top and run away with first prize. Wario often wondered why Mario even bothered to invite the pair, but then he never thought much past that, often distracted by a new business venture. Waluigi never seemed to give it much thought, putting his mind more to skill-based training so he could win over his rival Luigi. How that coward kept beating him was beyond his comprehension.

"That's right!" Waluigi shouted, shaking his fist at the castle, baring his rather large set of teeth. "We're better off without them! Besides that storm will ruin their fun! Wahaha!"

"What storm?" Wario's attention moved to where Waluigi was pointing. Over the lake rolled a rather ominous collection of clouds. They weren't the ordinary clouds in the kingdom, bearing no faces whatsoever. They moved more like mist than clouds, wispy and lightweight as they began rolling over the end of the course's green, effectively masking the flag which marked the location of the hole.

The cloud wasn't very big, spanning spanning from one end of the green to the other. It couldn't have been more than 20 feet long. As one end rolled forward, the other end seemed to roll upwards, almost like the tracks of a tank. The cloud suddenly turned, moving upwards in a rather erratic fashion, then proceeded horizontally towards the castle.

"What _is _that?" Wario gaped at it. It certainly wasn't normal. That much he could tell. He considered for a moment this could be a new scheme created by Bowser's odd sense of black magic, but the koopa king was probably still back at his castle, licking his wounds.

No, this was something entirely different, something that sent a chill down Wario's spine.

…

**Author's musings**

Hello! Are you ready for a dark and twisted Super Mario story? I sure hope so.


	2. The mysterious star eater

_W3d. Green. The symbol of life. Without green, the world will fall to ruin._

Rosalina's attention snapped suddenly towards the balcony which had a view of the nearby Castle Grounds golf course. Worry struck her sharp features as she stared out into the distance, suddenly drawn away from her joyous, incredibly awkward attempt at dancing with Peach and Mario.

"Rosalina?" Peach stopped her celebratory dancing when she noticed her friend's sudden change in demeanor. While Rosalina was often a mystery to the pink princess, this sort of worry seemed sudden and incredibly troubling. "Is something the matter?"

_Mfk3t. The Lady in Turquoise. A symbol of rebirth and renewal. Without turquoise, all will perish._

Rosalina glared sharply at the balcony. What was out there speaking on this level of existence? It was otherworldly, bellowing in a voice only the galaxies understood, speaking words from a long-lost language. Only she had heard the voice, and it troubled her. All will perish? The world will fall to ruin? "Something's very wrong," she replied to Peach. She wasn't sure she could explain this to her pink-clad friend, but she also wasn't certain she knew what was happening quite yet.

A rumbling resounded in the room, quickly interrupting the joyous music and drawing everyone's attention to the balcony where the sky suddenly turned black, or it seemed to, at least, as the black wispy cloud began to overtake the balcony and flow into the room. A few stars twinkled within the blackness, but they weren't stars belonging to the natural order of the galaxies. They'd been kidnapped.

"Star eater!" Rosalina shouted at the darkness, withdrawing her star wand from her sleeve. Several Lumas fell out of her sleeve as well, quickly clinging seeking refuge by clinging to Rosalina's legs. Using her wand, she drew a large circle, creating a barrier to protect the party guests as the galactic cloud flowed into the ballroom. The bubble barrier grew, enveloping the crowd.

"Do you know that... thing?" Peach asked, planting herself behind Rosalina. Right now, that seemed to be the safest location as Mario would probably be drawn out to fight the thing. While Bowser was certainly adept at magic, as was his advisor Kamek, this seemed a bit far beyond his scope of capabilities.. This thing, whatever it could be called, felt different. It put a pit in Peach's heart, a fear in her mind. Something was wrong.

Rosalina shook her head. "I do not; however this thing has swallowed stars. I fear it's up to no good." That was understating the situation, really, but she didn't want to cause unnecessary panic, especially as they were supposed to be celebrating. Yet in her heart, she knew something more sinister was afoot. A star eater was hardly a good sign and was a possible threat to the safety and lives of the stars and people dwelling near them.

The luma near Rosalina began acting somewhat strangely, its glow falling dimmer as it suddenly turned around and stumbled towards the middle of the crowd. It grew larger rapidly, expanding at an unprecedented rate. Rosalina turned, calling out to it in the language of the stars but it payed her no mind. Suddenly stopping before Luigi and Daisy, it quickly wrapped itself around Luigi despite his best efforts to wiggle free.

"Oh no you don't!" Daisy shouted, frantically kicking the possessed luma. "Give him back! He's mine!" True, Luigi could handle himself once he'd been pushed past his fear, but this sort of thing seemed even beyond him and Daisy combined.

Rosalina pleaded again, this time in an understandable language, "Luma! What are you doing? Please stop! Luigi is our friend!" The other lumas huddled around Rosalina, afraid. What was happening to it? Would the same thing happen to them?

_"W3d,"_ it replied, its voice somewhat warped and deep. Its color was fading away, turning the same black as the wispy cloud that had invaded the room. It lost its light, falling quickly into darkness.

"Luigi!" Mario reached forward, attempting to pull his brother out of the luma. He managed to grab Luigi's hand, but even pulling with all his might, he couldn't stop the consumption. Luigi's hand, along with his entire body, had been consumed by the possessed luma, which now proceeded to chew on Mario.

_"Dshr,"_ the luma stated, pulling Mario further and further inside it. Several star bits fell out of Mario's pocket as he was pulled inside, catching the attention of the real luma under the spell but only for a moment, before it sucked Mario inside then quickly dissipated, becoming a wisp of black smoke and floating away.

Peach leapt for the wisp but it evaded her grasp, leaving her on her knees on the ground, sobbing miserably. Daisy stood devastated beside her, staring in disbelief. She'd finally found happiness and it had been ripped from her very grasp. Both brothers were gone in less than a minute.

Rosalina turned to see the cloud retreat quickly back through the balcony and away from the castle. What did this ancient cloud want with the Mario Brothers? Star eaters were normally after stars and stardust, craving the taste of creation, yet eating two human brothers seemed completely uncharacteristic.

W3d. Dshr. Green. Red. Luigi. Mario.

Just what was it planning?

...

After spending a few days with Peach and Daisy to comfort them and ensure their safety, Rosalina had left the two princesses and returned to her home among the stars. The mysterious shadow plagued her mind since it had attacked the celebration.

The shadow had spoken in an ancient language, one even the stars seemed to have forgotten. It had first spoken of green and turquoise, but for some reason, it took red in place of turquoise. Rosalina turned the idea over in her head a few times, reasoning that Mario's disappearance was a mistake in the end. If going by colors, the intended target would have been her.

Speaking in ancient terms, the Lady in Turquoise which the shadow had mentioned, was the goddess of the sun and stars, a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Rosalina lived among the stars and she wore a blue similar to turquoise. It made sense, though why their absence would send the world into ruin she didn't quite understand. The stars would continue to live even without her.

What worried her even more was that the cloud could possess her luma. It frightened the other luma, and they hid themselves within the Comet Observatory and within the sleeves of her dress, hoping to not be possessed as well. Rosalina had holed herself away in the Observatory's library, hoping to find something in any of her books that would point to what this thing truly was and how to stop it. This thing was more than just a star eater; it was something more ancient and dangerous. And most important of all, she wished to find a way to return those who were taken. She had to rescue her friends.

She closed the book suddenly, standing up. The luma hiding in her sleeves shifted anxiously. "We need more information," she stated aloud. What she had at the Observatory just wasn't enough, but there was one place that might have the answer.

Rosalina piloted the Observatory across the galaxy to the only place she could even imagine contained information about such an ancient language. She shook the luma out of her sleeves, asking for them to help her search the ancient archives to find the answer. They quickly scattered about the Ancient Library seated at the heart of Sagittarius A*, the heart and soul of the galaxy. They were certain that the place would be safe even from the star eater.

Sure enough, after several days of searching, two luma returned with a large book titled _The Colors of Recreation_. Taking the book, Rosalina dusted it off, causing several luma to sneeze. The book looked as though it hadn't been checked out in millennia. She sat down, leaning against the bookshelf while the luma crowded around her. They felt safe around mama, and like Rosalina, they were curious why this odd ancient shadow had suddenly absorbed their friends, Luigi and Mario.

The book was ancient, perhaps as old as the galaxy itself. It was relatively thick, requiring both of her hands to hold it. The cover was decorated in geometric shapes in red, green, and turquoise, surrounded by frames of gold. The binding of the book was an ancient yet seemingly eternal technique of glue and twine, sewing the pages to the hard leather binding. The pages had yellowed throughout the years, warping slightly at the edges. Rosalina delicately turned the pages, studying the drawings decorating each page.

The first few sections detailed the birth of a new galaxy, the flow of magic and energy traveling from one point to the next, creating stars and worlds alike. The next few chapters showed unfortunate ends to galaxies. Collisions with other galaxies, pulling of magical forces, and simply dying after living out their full lives. None of this was new information. Rosalina knew much about the lives of the stars and their galaxies.

Yet one section remained within the book, one completely unexpected. "_The Recreation of Worlds_," she read the title aloud. "I don't remember this being in any of my books." True, some had tried to recreate worlds with galactic engines, but that was all modern technology and black magic. This book was far too ancient for such modern techniques.

Seeing the next page, she nearly dropped the book, gasping. It detailed something almost horrific: an ancient, magic-powered world engine which was capable of destroying a living world and stars and recreating them according to the world master's vision. It showed four stars of different colors with energy being forcibly removed, each one labeled in the language the mysterious cloud had spoken. The luma, sensing her surprise and shock, cowered behind her for protection, though a few peered over her arms to see what this book contained.

"Dshr, red," she read the first body's description aloud, tapping a finger on the page. "'_The color of destruction and of life. This is the first color required to begin reformation._'" She paused. Mario was indeed red, but did he truly represent this sort of power? Granted, Mario was a hero beyond all description, capable of helping restore the stars and the luma who had gotten lost before. Was it possible someone so pure-hearted could also cause destruction and reformation?

She continued to the next body. "Mfk3t, Turquose." The cloud had spoken of this when it had first arrived. "'_The power of restoration. With this power, the new world will begin._'" So far, the cloud had only mentioned turquoise but did not possess the power. Rosalina had planned to keep it that way.

Moving to the next color. "W3d. Green. '_The power of renewal, the power required to rebuild the new world._' Luigi!" He did have a pure heart like his brother, though Luigi was far too often overlooked. His heart was perhaps stronger than his brothers, though he was often held back by cowardice or shyness.

"The final color, Khenet. Gold. '_The color of eternal persistence. This power will breathe life into this new world, making it eternal._' Daisy?" She certainly was a persistent person, capable of surviving many hardships and continuing on with such a positive attitude. The cloud hadn't mentioned gold, but perhaps it was attempting to collect them in order.

"'_For the restoration, one must build the world engine and power it with the life of the planet and the stars._' The life of the planet and stars?" she glanced at the luma, who were now truly afraid. Of course, that was why she sensed the cloud was a star eater. It literally needed the power of the stars to create this world engine. "This has to be stopped. We can't allow that to happen."

Closing the book, she stood up and tucked it under her arm. "Send word to the luma staying with Peach. We need to warn her. Tell her we'll be on our way."

"That won't be necessary, Mfk3t."

Rosalina dropped the book in surprise. "Star eater!" Before her stood a man in a floor-length robe colored like a nebula and the stars, his scraggly hair covered in stardust. Like Rosalina, he was floating above the ground, seemingly floating on the mysterious cloud-like substance from where his feet would be.

"That's harsh, Lady in Turquoise," he chided. "If only you could see the vision for the new world. Pity you won't live long enough, lady of the stars." He suddenly thrust his arms out to the side, his cloak opening up to reveal galactic energies and stars. "I'll be taking you with me."


	3. The disappearance of Birabuto

The Mushroom Kingdom had fallen quiet. It had been a week since the joyous pre-wedding celebration. The paper lanterns were still hanging, yet most of the town had taken down the fresh flower decorations. Many of the houses had lit candles in their windows, one red and one green, in hope that Mario and Luigi would soon return home. They were the heroes, always saving the kingdom, but this time, they needed the help.

No one had heard anything from Rosalina either. She'd left nearly a week ago in a quest to find more information on the star eater, yet she still hadn't returned.

Peach leaned up against the balcony railing, propping her chin on her hands as she stared solemnly up at the night sky. The sky was peaceful and cloudless. Yet even as the stars twinkled happily and the cloud hung low in the sky, the place felt lonely.

With her ambition, Peach surely could have chased after the cloud and beaten it with her parasol mercilessly, yet she hadn't a clue where to start. The kingdom had been searching high and low without a moments rest, leaving no block unturned, in search for the star eater, but not a single person returned with a sighting. The star eater was gone. Daisy had returned to Sarasaland to watch over the same search. Last Peach had heard, Daisy hadn't turned up a thing either. Their only hope was Rosalina.

"Peach!" The luma who often accompanied the pink princess flailed as it floated towards her. "Peeeaaaaaach!"

The princess turned, catching the panicked star in her arms as it threw itself at her. "What ever could be the matter? Did you find something? Did the shadows frighten you?"

"Mmmm~~~" the luma groaned in fear. "Mama sent a warning! Something about a world engine and bad galactic magic but the message got cut off! Luma cannot contact her! Luma is worried!"

Peach bit her lower lip as she held the frightened luma. She wanted to say it would all be okay, but she would just be lying to the luma and herself. Something was wrong. 'Bad galactic magic' was troubling.

"Keep trying," Peach suggested. "Perhaps she's simply out of range." Her words were filled with hope that there was a range in Luma-speak and that Rosalina was simply out of it. Both silently knew that something had happened, that the situation had grown even more dire.

...

"PRINCESS!" Ninjetta, a ninji who labeled herself as Daisy's retainer, hopped frantically and erratically into the room.

Daisy stirred. She had been sitting on the balcony of her own castle in Sarasaland, staring out at the stars. While they twinkled, something felt off about them, as if they were suddenly fading. She wasn't entirely certain how long she'd been staring at the sky or if she'd even moved since she'd sat down. It was uncharacteristic for her, as she was normally so energetic and full of life. The more time had passed, the more she longed for Luigi, the more she wanted to beat up that star eater herself. Yet as with Peach, Daisy had yet to find the star eater.

"What's wrong, Ninjetta?" Daisy tilted her head, finally stirring from her star-staring stance.

"Bi-birabuto!" she stammered. "The kingdom! It just... disappeared!"

Daisy stared, her eyes widened. Birabuto was one of the kingdoms in Sarasaland, not too far from Chai where she currently was. It was a desert land, notably so arid and hot goombos wouldn't even live there. Not many plants survived there, simply some palm trees and piranha plants. In recent years, pokey took up residence in the area, along with a large population of pidgit and ravens.

"What do you mean, _disappeared_?" The words just didn't make sense. How could an entire land just disappear?

Ninjetta just shook her head. "I don't know. That was the message! I mean, I'm pretty sure I heard it right..."

...

Daisy hadn't even bothered to change into her racing gear when she'd taken the motorcycle to travel. She barreled down the main highway at top speed, Ninjetta clinging on to her skirt for dear life. Something was going on, and it sounded dangerous. Kingdoms don't just disappear overnight. That was a fact she was absolutely certain was true.

The bamboo forests of Chai soon faded away, giving way to the harsher lands familiar to Birabuto. Though it was the middle of the night, Daisy couldn't see any sort of familiar shapes in the distance. Lately, Birabuto had become a place known for its nightlife as the days were far too hot. A band of entrepreneurial pidgits and ravens had started up a casino in the buildings which had been abandoned after the alien Tatanga had tried to take over Sarasaland. The casino always lit up the sky, filling the night with glittering lights. But tonight, however, the sky was completely black.

Noticing something was off, Daisy suddenly shifted sideways in an attempt to pull the bike to a swift halt. As she'd been driving down the road at top speed, the bike continued to skid until the highway simply ended into nothingness, flinging Daisy, Ninjetta, and the bike off a cliff and into a pit of darkness.

"OH MAN!" Daisy shouted, attempting to grab whatever was left of the highway, missing it only slightly before gravity kicked in and pulled the hapless duo further into the darkness. Ninjetta lost hold of Daisy's skirt, frantically grabbing for whatever she could. Reaching forward, Daisy grabbed the ninji, pulling her close into a tight embrace. She wasn't sure how far this pit went, but she wasn't going to lose Ninjetta in the process.

Further and further they fell. The stars in the sky faded to darkness. Daisy couldn't tell left from right anymore as they plummeted into what seemed like oblivious. And then they hit something, promptly ending their descent.

"Oooowwww~" Daisy groaned. "Sunnova-"

"Gotcha princess!"

"Huh?!" Daisy blinked, attempting to see who or what had spoken. It was impossible to see anything in the darkness of oblivion, but the voice sounded friendly at the very least. She felt the ground she'd landed on move towards what she thought was upward, wavering like a magic carpet. "A pidgit?"

"My name is Pascal," the voice replied. "We saw the fall, and I had to come after you."

The pidgit was rather swift, commanding the carpet upward at a rather quick pace, causing Daisy to hold on to the edges with a death grip. "We?" Daisy echoed.

The stars finally came into view overhead as the pidgit lifted the carpet up and back onto land. Daisy attempted to untangle herself from her layers of petticoats. She'd lost a shoe at one point, probably somewhere in the pit. As she stood up, she kicked the other one off, abandoning it in favor of being able to walk properly.

"We," Pascal motioned to the crowd which had arrived. Most were ravens carrying lanterns with a few pidgits flying nearby. A few pokey hid off in the distance. "We're survivors of Birabuto. We're not sure if there are more, but this is everyone we've found."

"Survivors?" Daisy blinked, incredibly shocked. "What happened? Where's Birabuto? What's going on here? Kingdom's don't just disappear, right?" None of this made sense.

"Birabuto did disappear, Princess," replied one of the ravens standing near the front of the group. "It happened earlier today."

"I saw it too," chimed in a pidgit. He stood on another pidgit's flying carpet. "I lost my carpet when it did. It was really strange! There was this black mass with red stars in it that appeared in the middle of the casino. It started expanding and that's when everything started disappearing! I told everyone to evacuate. Next thing we knew, all that was left of Birabuto was a large hole filled with darkness."

A black mass with red stars? "The star eater," Daisy thought aloud. "But what would a star eater want with Birabuto?" It was a question no one could answer. Most of the kingdom was aware of the star eater as Daisy had sent word out to search for it, but no one had expected it to show up.

It seemed her theory was wrong. Kingdoms really could disappear overnight.

...

Daisy stayed with the Birabuto refugees overnight, sleeping on one of the pidgit's carpets. Ninjetta had nestled up against her, mostly for protection and reassurance that Daisy would still be there in the morning. They both received a scare when Daisy's reckless driving nearly killed the both of them and they flew into a deep, bottomless pit created by the star eater. Many of the ravens nestled up, surrounding their princess, while some of the pidgit stayed awake to keep watch.

Dawn came, streaking the sky with light and life. Daisy stirred, looking up at the sky as it turned from black to blue. She pushed herself to her feet and carefully stepped over the sleeping ravens, being mindful not to wake them. Ravens were notoriously loud, particularly when upset, and she didn't want them all to start shouting at the same time.

She finally got a look at what remained of Birabuto, which wasn't much. The skid marks from her motorcycle trailed from the highway off the cliff where the highway abruptly ended. Daisy peered over the edge, seeing some of the palm trees managed to survive the attack, clinging on to the wall of the hole for dear life as they poked out sideways over the abyss. The hole was massive, expanding as far as she could see. It had encompassed the entirety of Birabuto, swallowing whole the pyramids, pipes, and buildings which covered the harsh landscape. Nothing was left. The kingdom was literally gone.

Spotting her shoe she'd kicked off last night, Daisy picked it up and threw it overhand into the pit, listening. She listened for a few minutes, hand cupped to her ear, and yet she heard nothing. Her shoe hadn't hit the bottom or even a sunken pyramid. There was nothing there. Nothing at all.

Daisy simply flopped backwards, sitting down abruptly, not even bothering to properly spread out her skirt. It was a mess at this point, dirt and tears lining the edges. She leaned forward, pushing her elbows to her knees, then burying her face between them. She wrapped her hands around the back of her neck, unsure of what to do. Everything was gone. GONE. Sure there had been attacks on the Mushroom World before. Bowser practically laid siege to Peach's castle every Tuesday, but it was never anything like this. There was always the possibility of rebuilding, a sign of hope. But here, there was nothing at all.

It was all because of that star eater. Before returning to her Comet Observatory, Rosalina had informed Daisy and Peach of what a star eater was. She babbled on about cosmic energies and dark matter and stuff Daisy really didn't listen to, but the last part she fully understood. Star eaters ate the stars and the stuff used to make stars. But Birabuto wasn't a star. It was a kingdom. Granted it emitted a lot of light at night, but it still wasn't a star.

"Are you going to be alright, princess?"

Daisy unburied her face to find Pascal had asked, though he wasn't alone. Many of the ravens had come to check on her too. "I'm mad," she replied honestly. "That star eater messed with my home and my fiancee. He'll pay for that." She wasn't entirely sure how yet, but that was the plan. She pushed herself to her feet, watching the sun rise over the horizon, casting an eerie shadow on the void where Birabuto once stood. Her expression read as an odd mix between worry and determination. Something had to be done.

"Ninjetta," Daisy ordered. "Send word to Peach. See if she can contact Rosie. I doubt this is gonna be an isolated attack." That star eater was after something, but what she hadn't the slightest idea. It just didn't make sense. First Luigi and Mario, then Birabuto. "Everyone else, we should look for more survivors. I don't want anyone stranded out here alone."

...

Ninjetta traveled back to Chai as quickly as she could hop. There was a pipe there near the castle that lead directly to the Mushroom Kingdom. With a message this urgent, she had to make haste to Princess Peach, hoping that it wouldn't be too late. However, someone had beaten her to the castle. "Princess Peach!"

Peach was a strange sight to see in Sarasaland. Daisy was the traveler, often staying with Peach for extended times, but this time, it was the opposite. The pink princess held a rather frightened luma in her arms, worry drawn across her soft features. "Where is Daisy? Is she well?"

Ninjetta frowned, then quickly explained what happened with Birabuto.

"Oh my, that's terrible," Peach frowned, wrought with worry. "And the star eater might've caused this?"

Ninjetta nodded.

This star eater was becoming worrisome by the minute. While she hadn't exactly been specific, Rosalina mentioned the star eater's behavior was really strange. It was after something other than stars but she wasn't entirely sure what or why. She'd babbled on about colors and symbolism, mostly spitting out odd words Peach had never heard before, saying the words were from an ancient language long forgotten. And after that, she'd left to consult the books and the stars. Peach hadn't heard much from her since then, aside from the garbled message the luma had relayed.

Ninjetta added, "Princess Daisy also said to get in contact with Princess Rosalina."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Peach looked down. "We've lost contact with her."

The ninji paused, staring down at the ground. That threw a wrench in the equation, didn't it? "The princess will be back soon. She's looking for survivors."

Peach would've expected nothing less from her best friend. "I'll wait for her."

...

Daisy returned several hours later, caked in sand, slightly sunburned, and still without shoes. The floors of the castle felt good on her worn feet. With her, she had brought everyone they could find. The numbers weren't that large, as they'd only found a handful more in their search. The local ninji population had opened up their homes to take in as many refugees as possible. Those who couldn't be accommodated were offered one of the castle wings.

"Daisy."

She looked up as she attempted to pick the sand out from between her toes. "Peach? What're you doing here? What's wrong?" Her immediate thought was that the Mushroom Kingdom had suffered a similar fate as Birabuto.

"I've lost contact with Rosalina," Peach informed her. "She sent a message through this luma, but it was incredibly garbled. Something concerning a 'world engine' and bad galactic magic."

"Wait," Daisy put her foot back on the ground and furrowed her eyebrows into a knot of worry and frustration. "You don't think that star eater got to her, do you?"

Peach shook her head. "It is possible," she confessed. She'd turned the possibility over in her mind since last night when the luma panicked and hid in her arms. She'd never seen the luma act like that before. It was genuinely scared for mama.

"That sunnova-" Daisy shouted, clenching her fists at her side. "Enough waiting around, Peach! We need to do something!"

Surprisingly, Peach completely agreed. "We do. When I return home, I plan on contacting all our allies, even the shaky ones. With everyone banded together, surely we will be victorious and stop this star eater, returning our friends to us."

…

**Author's notes:**

Bit of a long one, isn't it? It was originally two chapters, but it just didn't flow right separate. So together they now are.

I've decided to use a lot of SMB2/USA baddies for Sarasaland to make it different from the Mushroom Kingdom. And some of those baddies don't always get love. I figure critters migrate anyway. There are mentions of cross-kingdom migrations in the first Mario & Luigi RPG.

All the critters and locations in this chapter are based on various games. Chai and Birabuto are kingdoms within Sarasaland, mentioned as levels in _Super Mario Land_. Goombos are round, bulbous goombas native to Sarasaland. Pidgit are those black birds that fly on carpets in _Super Mario Bros 2_. The ravens originated from _Yoshi's Island_, but I'm taking them from the _Super Princess Peach_ version, because they're my favorite. When they cry, the shake the entire screen and stun Peach for a moment. The ninji originated also in _Super Mario Bros 2_ and are the little black star-like ninja critters that jump up and down. They appear in some of the _Paper Mario_ games.

As for Daisy, I had a lot of fun writing for her in this chapter. She comes across as such a tomboy. She really seems like the type to get her hands dirty (literally even) and take care of her own problems, _Super Mario Land_ aside (that's where Tatanga came from). I imagine her manners aren't all that proper either. I wanted to bring out an emotional side to her, one which is fueled by her desire to help and protect her kingdom and her friends. Nothing seems to go right for her.


	4. HELLO YELLO

Perhaps having Parakarry deliver requests for help was a bad idea. While Parakarry was the postman of the Mushroom Kingdom, he had a bad tendency to deliver letters late or just plain forget about them. Peach had given him a rather large stack of missives to various members around the kingdom and even outside it in hopes someone had information about the star eater or at least knew what one was. The letters also contained requests for help in fighting the creature.

It had been only a few days since Birabuto had disappeared in Sarasaland. Peach hadn't heard from Daisy about any additional disappearances, so she had to assume Daisy's search for allies and survivors was going well. As well as one could call this sort of situation, at least.

"HELLO YELLO!" The familiar chipper voice rang out in the rather solemn castle. Someone had gotten the letter. Starlow, the yellow star sprite and a good friend of Peach, had arrived, floating in. While her voice sounded a bit sing-song, she actually looked rather worried.

"It's good to see you again, Starlow," Peach greeted her, "though I wish it were under better circumstances."

True the circumstances were rather dismal, but Starlow would've come for tea if Peach had asked. Starlow was upset she couldn't make it to the wedding celebration, but she had Star Sprite duties to attend. Poor timing, really, though a star sprite encountering a star eater didn't sound like the greatest match-up. Perhaps it was better she missed it.

"I came as soon as I could get information," Starlow offered. "When you mentioned 'star eater' in your letter, I had to research the legends." The star sprites had been around the Kingdom for generations, often guarding the place when something dangerous or strange arrived. The presence of something called a star eater certainly spelled trouble.

"Did you find anything?" Peach asked curiously, motioning towards the boardroom where they could discuss in detail any findings. "Was there any mention of a world engine?"

"Nothing like that," Starlow replied, following Peach. "Just legends. Mostly contradictory nonsense. It's said that star eaters like to feed on stardust to grow larger. Then when they're big enough, they swallow the galaxy's core, which pretty much kills the galaxy and all life within it."

Well that was unsettling. Peach nearly chewed on one of her fingers. "Our star eater sounds much different. It swallowed up Mario and Luigi and possibly our star princess friend, Rosalina. Then it swallowed an entire kingdom in Sarasaland." She still wasn't entirely certain of Rosalina's status. The star eater seemed to stay in Mushroom World, and Rosalina had been light years away. There was the possibility the two had encountered one another, though it was still highly unknown.

Starlow frowned. "That _doesn't_ sound a thing like the legends. Are you sure it's a star eater?"

"That is what Rosalina had called it when it arrived," Peach replied. "The luma are terrified of it, perhaps for good reason. The star eater managed to possess one of them. This creature is rather frightening and attacks seemingly at random. Rosalina mentioned it was speaking in some sort of ancient tongue forgotten by the stars."

An ancient tongue forgotten by the stars? That sounded like something even the star sprites didn't know. Starlow hadn't yet met Rosalina, but there were legends of a lady among the stars. This star-princess Rosalina had to have extensive knowledge of the galaxy, more so than just the stars that hung in the sky. Perhaps she lived among the stars, and if she had any relation to the luma people, then she had to be of galactic importance. The disappearance of a galactic figure was nothing short of disastrous. Perhaps the so-called star eater was trying to eat the galaxy in a different way, more figuratively than literally.

"Well whatever it is," Starlow added, "it's definitely troubling. I'll stay with you to help fight it." She certainly didn't want Peach to be alone in this sort of situation. Peach was a balancing aspect of the kingdom. Her disappearance could easily throw the place into turmoil. Granted Bowser had a tendency to kidnap her, but he didn't _eat_ her. The last time Peach had been eaten, it nearly caused the end of the world.

"Thank you," Peach smiled. "I'm quite thankful to have you along to help." Her mind was still wrought with worry, and despite her smile, it still read across her face. She was worried about her people and her friends. She was horribly worried about Daisy and her kingdom. Sarasaland was so rarely attacked. This sort of thing was no doubt devastating.

With silence striking the pair, Starlow surveyed the empty board room. Normally it would be filled with heroic figures like Mario and scientists and advisers. Luigi would just be tagging along. Starlow didn't always think highly of the green brother. He seemed more of a coward than anything else, but Mario always spoke so highly of him. She couldn't figure out why. Maybe he had some sort of secret power.

"I'm not the only one you sent a letter to, am I?" Starlow asked, breaking the silence.

Peach shook her head. "I sent many letters out with Parakarry, but perhaps I sent too many. He may have lost a few."

Chipper as she often was, Starlow had no hesitation to express frustrations. "Seriously?" Starlow frowned sharply, gritting her teeth in frustration. "What letter carrier loses _letters_ in the face of a world-wide _emergency?!_ I'll deliver them myself if I have to!"

"That's quite alright," Peach objected. Parakarry wasn't exactly the most responsible letter carrier, but certainly he'd get the job done. Eventually. And besides, Peach wanted Starlow to stay with her. She didn't want to be alone.

"If you say so," Starlow huffed. "But the offer's still open."

"I would like it if you stayed with me instead," Peach confessed.

Okay, that changed everything. Starlow floated over to her. "Okay, I'll stay with you." She couldn't very well leave Peach alone with this star eater thing running around, now could she? "We'll find an answer to this." Somehow.

...

He was a strange sort of man, short, elderly, with thick coke-bottle glasses and one stray hair on the top of his head. He arrived at the Chai Kingdom in a car made from garbage cans and ran on soda. The professor was a rather eccentric friend of Luigi's, though he'd come to know Mario as well. He arrived with a missive in hand at Daisy's castle.

"Glad you could make it," Daisy invited the professor in. Unlike Peach, Daisy didn't have a lot of letters to mail out. Most of her allies were also Peach's and lived in the Mushroom Kingdom. While Peach did know him, Professor Elvin Gadd was more an associate of Luigi's than anyone else's. He tended to move about, going wherever investigations too him. He'd taken up residence nearby Sarasaland to study ghosts, so he wasn't too difficult to track down.

"Ohoho, not a problem at all, youngster! Always happy to help out and study a galactic creature!" The professor nodded, excited at the scientific prospects but underneath concerned for his dear friend's whereabouts. "I'm sure we'll find Luigi and Mario in no time." Pulling a white DS from his lab coat pocket, he flipped it open and turned a bit, using it to survey the area. "Hm." The DS served as a scientific device, taking readings of all sorts and spitting out information on both of the dual screens. The professor custom-made them, even giving one to Luigi which he dubbed the Dual Scream. That particular one was used for mapping and communications among other scientific and investigative features.

"I can take you to where the star eater last attacked," Daisy offered.

"Ohoho, excellent plan!" E. Gadd agreed, motioning towards his odd soda-powered car. "We'll take the SodaPop3000!"

The SodaPop sputtered down the highway at impressive speeds, considering the thing ran on soda alone. Ninjetta had come along for the ride, refusing to leave Daisy's side, literally, as she clung to her princess. The SodaPop pulled to a stop on top of the tire tracks Daisy's bike had left before she careened into the pit only a few days prior.

"Oho, now this is interesting!" the professor exclaimed, hopping out of the car and quickly opening up his DS. Readouts and charts flickered on both screens, offering copious amounts of data, none of which Daisy actually understood. They were just lines and bars and stuff.

"What is it?" Daisy asked, hopping out of the car with Ninjetta still clinging to her skirt. She'd since given up attempting to shake the ninji off. "Did you find something?"

"I did, and it's fascinating!" he replied excitedly. "This pit, it's covered with stellar energy. It's as if the place just burst like a super nova."

Well that matched up with the description the pigits and ravens had given her about the incident. "The locals said that the star eater had arrived and expanded, eating the kingdom whole." The idea of the kingdom bursting like a supernova just bothered her. Those were those pretty cloud things out in space and stuff. Rosalina had babbled on about them at one point, talking about the flow of cosmic energies. Daisy didn't particularly listen to the subject, but she enjoyed looking at the photos of them Rosie had brought with her. This hole, however, wasn't pretty. It was just dark.

The professor turned, bounding down the circumference of the pit for another reading. "Yes, yes, I'm quite sure. This _is_ definitely cosmic energy out of balance."

"If we fix this energy stuff, will Birabuto come back?" Daisy babbled. She really didn't understand this cosmic stuff.

"Hm," the professor replied, tapping his chin as more readings spilled over the screens. "Hard to say right now."

Daisy frowned, biting her lower lip in frustration. She wanted to throw her current pair of shoes at the so-called cosmic disruption, hoping that maybe the kingdom was just invisible and her shoes would reveal it. But she knew it didn't work that way. The hole had nearly swallowed her up and had already claimed her last pair of shoes.

"Chin up, young princess!" E. Gadd consoled, noticing her obvious frustration. While the science was certainly a fascinating study, countless lives were at stake here, including his friends Mario and Luigi. "Energy doesn't just disappear. It's displaced. Surely everyone is still somewhere which means I can build something to _re_place them." It wasn't beyond his capabilities. He'd built transporters and pixelators before. Something to restore them wouldn't be too difficult. It would just take time and research.

Even so, it was probably the best news Daisy had heard all week. "What will it take to make this re-placer thingy?"

"Research and time," the professor replied, shifting back towards the SodaPop to take some more readings. "Cosmic energy is a touchy thing."

"You and Rosie'd get along so well," Daisy frowned, knowing very well that Rosalina was missing. Ironic, really. For once, Daisy was wishing she'd listened to Rosalina's babbling about cosmic stuff even once. Maybe if she _had_ listened, they'd find a solution sooner.

"Rosie? Another young princess?" the professor looked up from his readings.

"Young? Dunno about that," Daisy replied. Even if she _looked_ young, she was some sort of galactic guardian. She was probably a few hundred years old, right? Just how old was the galaxy again? "But she's like a cosmic guardian princess. She knows all about cosmic energies and stars and things, but last I heard, she's missing too."

"Hm, that is a bit troubling," the professor nodded. He really knew nothing about cosmic princesses, but the girl seemed to be a particularly key figure in the cosmos. "Perhaps her absence is causing these rather odd readings." An alarm began screaming on his DS. "Oho~ I think we're about to find out."

"Say what?!" Daisy exclaimed, quickly turning to see whatever the professor was looking at. Behind them, in the middle of the day, there was a darkness on the horizon. The edges were soft and wispy yet it distinctly looked like the dead of night at the core. "No! You can't take Chai!" She wanted to run towards it, to beat the star eater and get it to spit everything and everyone up. Taking off a few steps, she stopped when she felt Ninjetta yanking on her skirt, digging her feet into the dirt in an attempt to get her to stop.

"Careful there, young princess!" the professor called out to her. "If I'm right about this, that thing will swallow you whole!"

Daisy stopped, still poised to make a mad dash for the shadow. He was right, though. The star eater would eat her too, but she didn't want to watch her entire kingdom to become one cosmic hole in the ground. It was _her_ home and she didn't want to share it. Even so, what good would she do to help solve this situation if she became unbalanced cosmic dust?

"You stupid star eater!" she shouted in the direction of the darkness surrounding Chai. "Leave Sarasaland alone! It's not food!"

Almost as if the star eater had heard her, the night seemed to spread like wildfire, expanding at an alarming rate. The ground below them disappeared, crumbling below them and falling into the black of night. The SodaPop turned over sideways, falling into the abyss. The ground below Daisy and Ninjetta crumbled away, leaving them to fall with the SodaPop if Professor hadn't reached for them.

"Hold tight, fellers!" he shouted over the noise of the crumbling. "This isn't a game over!"

The ground below the professor crumbled away, leaving him to fall into the darkness with the two girls.

…

**Author's notes:**

There are a few interesting characters here, pretty high profile if you've played some of the major side series.

First, Starlow. She hails from the later _Mario & Luigi RPGs_. She appears in both _Bowser's Inside Story_ (3) and _Dream Team_ (4). She's an obnoxious little thing, but still cute and helpful. Her catch phrase is "HELLO YELLO", always properly capitalized. I've based her personality off 3 as I haven't played 4 yet.

Parakarry hails from _Paper Mario_. He's a paratroopa who wears an aviator hat with goggles and carries a mailbag. He's notorious for losing letters.

And finally, Professor Elvin Gadd, better known as E. Gadd. He's a pretty prominent character in both the _Mario and Luigi RPGs_ (1 _Superstar Saga_ and 2 _Partners in Time_) and _Luigi's Mansion_. He's short, even by Mario games standards and invents all the really weird ass stuff in the games. Somehow a car running on soda seems like his sort of thing to do.


	5. The not-so-fortunate street

The boardroom at Peach's Castle still felt rather empty. Birdo and Yoshi had arrived shortly after Starlow, both to offer whatever help they could. Dr. Toadley, the local doctor and fortune teller, had arrived later in the afternoon with his crystal ball. He was a short fellow, a toad with stars on his cap. He wore a long robe and a small cloth over his mouth, concealing all but his eyes on his face. He had spent the past few days divining and reading the images which had manifested on the ball, none of which actually made sense.

As he sat at the boardroom table, his crystal ball sat upon a small pillow, showing images of a black swirling mass with four distinctly different colored stars faintly shining against the darkness. Despite how many times he'd waved his hands over the ball, the image simply wouldn't change. "Do these images make sense? They do not," the doctor shook his head.

"Hm." Starlow pondered aloud, floating next to Peach. "Red. Yellow. Green. And turquoise. Surely those colors must mean _something_."

"Well Mario and Luigi are red and green," Birdo pointed out. "Weren't they abducted by this heinous star eater, darling?"

Peach tapped her lips thoughtfully. The luma shifted uncomfortably in her lap as she sat at the boardroom table with the other gathered allies. "Rosalina wears blue. That would match the turquoise."

"Could this be all symbolism? It could," the doctor nodded, waving his hands over the crystal ball once again. The image still wouldn't change, seemingly stuck on a combination of the four colors as colorful stars lighting up the darkness.

"Well what if-" Starlow cut herself off quickly. "What is that?!"

A light sparked in the middle of the boardroom. It began swirling in colors of black, orange, and peach, forming an odd swirled portal. Blocks flew through the portal, stacking up as if building someone or something.

"The star eater?!" Starlow panicked.

"No, it's different," Peach corrected her. The blocks continued to build and build until three people manifested then fell to the boardroom floor with a hard thud.

"Owwwww," the intruder groaned, rubbing her backside gingerly.

"Daisy!" Peach exclaimed.

The orange princess looked up, blinking at the sudden bright light. Ninjetta and E. Gadd had landed on top of her. She herself was a mess, her petticoats torn and skirt rumpled. She'd lost a shoe again. Her crown had fallen from her head at some point, though it had been caught in the transport and clattered to the ground next to her.

"Wait, Peach?" Daisy stammered. "How? What? Where?"

"Ohoho, my remote pixelator is a success!" E. Gadd clapped, hopping off Daisy. He pulled out his white DS, offering commands to close the portal so that the cosmic energy wouldn't be able to follow them. "A bit off target, but still a good location!"

"Daisy, you're in my boardroom," Peach replied, rising from her seat and kneeling beside Daisy to ensure her best friend wasn't hurt. "What happened?"

Daisy hit the ground with her fist in frustration. "Chai's gone. That damn star eater just ate it! UUUGH!" That marked two kingdoms of her small land gone, leaving only the watery Muda and island Easton. If that thing managed to swallow Muda, Easton would probably sink along with it. Then everything would be gone and she couldn't do a thing to counter it. That star eater had nearly swallowed her twice.

"Doctor Toadley," Peach glanced back at the doctor who had stayed by his crystal ball in an attempt to divine more information. "Is it possible that Daisy is the yellow in your vision?"

The doctor swirled his hands over the crystal ball once more. The images still hand't changed, persistently showing the four colored stars in the black of night. "Is Daisy our yellow? It is possible."

"What do you mean, yellow?" Daisy blinked, finally sitting up with Ninjetta still clinging to her waist. Peach filled her friend in on the little information they'd found with Dr. Toadley's vision, not that it made much sense yet. Daisy babbled on about what they'd seen, how the star eater just ate the entirety of Chai. The colors and cosmic imbalance seemed to match up with what Rosalina had said shortly before she left for her Observatory.

"Ohoho, chins up, young fellers," the professor offered. "Nearly getting eaten has regurgitated a lot of new and useful information!" The pun was rather poor in taste, but he'd said it anyway.

Daisy frowned sharply at the pun but decided to let it slide. The professor was eccentric but he was also brilliant. "Does that mean you can find Luigi, Mario, and Rosie? Even Sarasaland?"

The professor nodded with a bit of glee. "It looks like it! We'll find the brothers and friends! I'll need time to sort out the research and create a Regurgitator 2000." Aptly named, though it wasn't entirely necessary to do so.

"Can Dr. Toadley help with this information? He can," the doctor offered.

"I'll set you both up with a place to work within the castle," Peach added, standing up and motioning to follow her. With these brilliant minds, there had to be a solution.

...

A district neighboring Toad Town, Fortune Street was the biggest shopping district in the entirety of the Mushroom Kingdom. While there was a mall within Toad Town, nothing could quite compare to Fortune Street. Wario and Waluigi had taken up residence there some time ago, setting up a highly successful strip of shops along the Street. While Wario mostly ran the shops, Waluigi helped out on occasion, when he wasn't off rigorously training in skilled sports in an attempt to beat his rival Luigi.

Today was one of those days. The shop wasn't busy, and Waluigi sat on a chair behind the counter of the game shop, leaning on the counter with one arm, his feet kicked up on the nearby stool. He'd heard talk about a star eater thing, but nothing concrete. He only figured it had to be linked to that cloud he and Wario had spotted when playing golf. That was the day that Mario and Luigi had disappeared too, leaving him and Wario without rivals.

With the fear of the star eater lurking, not many people had ventured out despite the day being clear and warm. Local rumor was the thing was going to swallow the entire planet. People were dumb.

The door to the shop opened, ringing the bell that hung on the door frame. Waluigi perked up to see a blue-shelled paratroopa with a mailbag strapped over his shoulder fly in. Waluigi had seen him a few times before, remembering him as the area's mailman.

"A letter for you!" Parakarry announced, rummaging through his bag. A few odd letters fell out, followed by a super leaf pressed and flattened into a clear plastic envelope. He hurriedly picked up the displaced letters then handed the proper letter to Waluigi. "For you and Wario! A letter carrier's job is never done!" The paratroopa turned and hurriedly flew out the door, dropping a letter or two on the way out.

The letter was addressed in very formal writing, closed with the official royal seal of Princess Peach, a traditional melted pink plastic seal with the stamp of her crown in the center. "Watch it be Waluigi and Wario's late invitation, waaahaha" he laughed to himself, kicking his feet up on the counter as he leaned back in his chair.

He frowned at his own joke. As if it were the invitation. Daisy had no reason to invite either of them to the party. Their relationship was horribly one-sided, and Waluigi was painfully aware of it. She wanted Luigi, not Waluigi, but that didn't necessarily stop him from trying.

He dug his finger under letter's flap and forced it open, pulling out a handwritten letter from Peach herself. "A call for help?" Waluigi frowned at it. Parakarry must've delivered the letter to the wrong place again.

The bell on the door began to ring incessantly despite the door being completely closed. Several toads ran past the windows in a panic followed by several para-beetles and troopas. Parakarry flew past suddenly as well. Something was going on.

Shoving the missive into his pocket, Waluigi made a quick exit outside. He wasn't the heroic type even if he wanted to be, which he didn't. Instead he could use the panic and hysteria to his advantage and cheat a few people out of their belongings. Wario had the same idea, arriving from another shop to meet his partner in crime on the sidewalk. Yet their plans of pilfering and cheating would have wait.

"Waaaa, that's the same cloud from before!" Waluigi pointed out, slouching over and jabbing a finger down towards the end of the street. Most of the shoppers had fled the scene as a large black mass had swallowed up half the block. A few red stars weakly twinkled within the mass as it expanded.

This certainly wasn't the time for pilfering. There was nothing left to pilfer as the mass expanded more and more, taking the shops and streets with it. The ground below the two suddenly crumbled away to the black mass below. Waluigi grabbed for anything he could but any reachable land soon fell to the darkness as well. He managed to catch Wario by one hand. If there were one thing he actually cared about other than cheating and winning, it was Wario.

Parakarry wasn't too far above them, attempting to fly free of the gravitational pull the dark hole in the ground was emitting. He managed to escape, though his bag soon fell victim to the pull, plummeting downwards as the shift in weight flung Parakarry high into the sky. Letters littered the sky, shooting past Waluigi and Wario like falling stars. Waluigi managed to catch the pressed super leaf and use its power.

Now as fox Waluigi, he flipped around, grabbing Wario with both hands and flying them both to safety. They landed on the outskirts of Fortune Street at the edge of the nearby Bubble Lake. Nothing remained of Fortune Street save a gaping hole of nothing. "Waaaaaa... too close," he huffed, breathing heavily as he slumped over on the grass. While Waluigi was certainly more fit than Wario, his efforts took mostly everything out of him. It was exausting.

Wario stood up from where they landed to peer over the edge. The pit seemed to go on for miles with no signs of a bottom and no signs of whatever remained of his shops. Only darkness remained accompanied with what looked like a few faint twinkling stars. "Feh."

One of the faint stars in the pit seemed to glisten suddenly brighter. It rose higher and higher at an alarming rate before coming to a halt right before Wario. He was tall, seemingly human with a long cloak that looked as if it had been woven from the stars. His unkept hair was sprinkled with stardust. "Khenet."

"It's _Wario_. Get it right, buddy," Wario scowled at the man.

"Khenet," he repeated, his voice rather haunting and low. Floating above the pit, he thrust his arms out to the side, flinging his cloak open, revealing the stolen stars under his cloak. "The last piece. The color of persistence. With you, my creations will become eternal."

"What are you-" Wario cut short as he attempted to turn and escape the sudden gravitational pull into the cloak. Waluigi reached for him, grabbing for whatever he could, only managing to catch his hat before Wario was sucked into the darkness.

…

**Author's references:**

Fortune Street is based of the game with the same name. While Fortune Street itself doesn't exist within Mushroom World, several of the boards do. Even so, Fortune Street seemed like a place that could plausibly exist within the Mushroom Kingdom. This is based off the basic Mario boards, namely Peach's Castle.

The mall in Toad Town is built in _Mario & Luigi RPG3: Bowser's Inside Story_. It's right outside the castle walls and has all sorts of shops, including Dr. Toadley's mystical medical clinic. The place has all sorts of shops including a tea shop and clothing stores.

And nearby the mall is Bubble Lake, a huge lake with small grassy hills and lots of trees and deadly flora.


	6. The unlikely ally

"Princess! Princess Peach! Emergency, by boogity!" The blue-capped toad rushed into the room, waving his arms frantically, only stopping for a brief second to push his glasses back up.

Peach had just returned to the main board room to meet up with the other members assembled by her missives requesting help. She had just offered Dr. Toadley and E. Gadd the castle's laboratory for all their research into the matter and potentially creating this Regurgitator 2000 to restore all which had been lost. "What's the matter, Toadbert?"

"It's just awful!" Toadbert replied. "Fortune Street!"

"That's a lovely place to visit, my darling~" Birdo commented, putting a hand to her face as she mused over the times she herself had shopped there for bows.

"It's not there anymore, by boogity!" Toadbert finished. "Parakarry saw it happen!" He beckoned them to follow him outside

The assembled heroes all rushed to the front entrance of the castle to find the paratroopa exhausted, lying face down on the steps breathing heavily. He'd lost a shoe and his mailbag. Toadiko, Toadbert's pink-capped counterpart, had been tending to Parakarry, offering him a mushroom shake to help restore his strength.

The paratroopa managed to sit up and explain in surprisingly thorough details what he'd witnessed at Fortune Street, detailing the massive hole and how the darkness just swallowed everything up before he flew back to the castle with every ounce of strength he could muster.

Daisy folded her arms and nodded, listening to his description. "That is _definitely_ the star eater. That's pretty much how it happened at Chai. And the thing likes to steal just one shoe too."

The others had at first brushed the shoelessness off as Daisy being less-than-ladylike but Parakarry was also missing one shoe. This star eater certainly had some strange habits, none of which actually made much sense yet. There didn't seem to be any sort of pattern with the attacks. At first it seemed to be swallowing up Sarasaland, but just now it had attacked the Mushroom Kingdom as well.

"It's after something," Daisy nodded.

Ninjetta looked up worried at her liege. "Could it be chasing you?"

"Me?" Daisy blinked, stupidly pointing at herself. She had to pause and think about the earlier conversation. Dr. Toadley had spouted some backwards nonsense about colors, and despite Peach's best explanations, Daisy still found her mind wandering back to her own land and how much it wasn't there. Then she'd thought of Luigi, that charming chicken-hearted man she so loved. Both were gone. That last part made her want to punch things.

"If you are the yellow star, it could be trying to follow you," Peach pointed out, worry lacing her delicate features.

"Why not just let it eat me then?" Daisy frowned. "Then it'll stop eating everyone else." She didn't want to be responsible for disappearing cities. She didn't want that weighing down on her heart like a chain chomp. She wanted it to all stop, for the people to survive and live on. And there was a small shred of hope inside her mind that maybe, if she jumped into that star eater, she'd be able to pull Luigi out.

"Don't say things like that!" Peach shouted at her. "No one blames you for any of this!" Peach could easily see the pain twisting Daisy's features into a frustrated knot. "And if that star eater gets you, it will spell disaster and the end of the world. We will stop it. We promised, remember?"

They had promised. After the disappearance of Birabuto, the two princesses swore that they would find an end to this and bring everyone back.

"Peach, look out!" Daisy shouted, suddenly snatching Ninjetta from the ground to use as a weapon, pulling the hapless ninji back over her shoulder, preparing to attack.

Peach's attention snapped to the supposed attacker. It was Waluigi, alone, hunched over as usual. He held no weapon but instead held Wario's hat. He was still feeling the effects of the super leaf, sporting fox ears and a tail. He looked miserable, his cheeks slightly puffy and his eyes slightly red. He'd also managed to lose one shoe.

"Daisy, wait!" Peach exclaimed, grabbing at Daisy in an attempt to stop her and possibly rescue Ninjetta. Peach was as surprised as anyone else to see the slouched man arrive at her own doorstep. She'd sent him a missive but never expected a reply. Even so, he probably wasn't here for the missive. He lived on Fortune Street.

"Leggo, Peach!" Daisy fussed, gripping onto Ninjetta despite her squirming. "He's probably here to cheat us out of something or take advantage of this situation!"

"I don't think that's the case," Peach countered, stepping forward towards him. Waluigi stood his ground, though he watched her carefully. He'd never really been this close to her, as he seemed to spend more time looking at Daisy instead. They were close to the same height, though Waluigi could easily have a few inches on her if he stood up straight.

Peach reached forward, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug. She was driven by emotions, her empathy for him. She could see the sadness in his eyes, how tightly he held Wario's hat in his hand. "The star eater took Wario, didn't it?"

He tensed up for a moment, surprised by her action. He came to her, mostly expecting to be beaten by Daisy and turned away, but instead he was greeted with compassion. He didn't quite understand it at first, as it wasn't how he worked. He was a cheater and a thief, not a lover or even someone with a shred of compassion. And yet here he was, with the princess of compassion offering him a comforting hug. "Waa..." Finally giving in to his own heart, he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder.

Peach couldn't quite imagine what he was thinking. Unlike Wario, Waluigi was always such an enigma. He seemed to be set on things that made sense to very few, such as his self-declared rivalry with Luigi and his odd manner of speaking. Yet as they stood there on the castle steps, his face buried in her shoulder, she understood everything she needed to.

"Stay with us," Peach offered. "The more of us, the greater chance we have at being victorious and rescuing everyone." She wasn't entirely sure he'd seen the missive or even received it, but the offer was open either way. Right now, they needed every ally they could, even the odd ones. This star eater didn't show any discrimination in its attacks, swallowing up enemy and ally, towns and cities, even shoes.

Daisy frowned, folding her arms. She wasn't fond of Waluigi at all, but Peach did have a point. they had both agreed to amass every ally they could, and Peach probably saw something in the odd beanpole that Daisy just couldn't see. She didn't know too much about Waluigi but Wario kept him around, so he had to be good at something.

"I'll cheat that star eater outta everything it's got," Waluigi declared, his face still buried in her shoulder. That was what brought him here. The missive simply gave him the suggestion, but he'd come of his own volition. If that star eater could cheat him out of Wario, he'd cheat it back with the most powerful allies in the kingdoms.

...

Daisy frowned, staring at the sky. The past two weeks had been miserable after she finally decided to make her happiness eternal with Luigi. Surveys of Sarasaland showed that only the oceanic kingdom Mudo had managed to survive and was currently draining into the pit formerly known as Eaton.

Sarasaland wasn't that large, and now all that remained was a large hole. The Mushroom Kingdom had remained relatively untouched thus far, save the gaping pit where Fortune Street once stood. While the Kingdom always seemed to be in turmoil, practically every Tuesday, there was a sort of magic that seemed to keep it afloat. Sarasaland wasn't so lucky. Daisy idly wondered if the other kingdoms in the world were surviving or if the planet would just turn into one big gaping shadow hole.

And so far, Daisy hadn't been able to do anything to counter it. So far, she'd been the damsel in distress, getting saved last minute from the pit of doom. The first time was her fault. She wouldn't have any trouble admitting to it, her reckless driving throwing her and Ninjetta off a cliff. But the second wasn't her fault. The second one hurt. She was right there when Chai was swallowed whole and she couldn't stop it. Even worse, it seemed to be targeting her, believing her to be some sort of yellow star.

She punched the railing.

"You'll hurt yourself like that, Princess~" The large beanish man floated gracefully up to the balcony on his flying green bean platform. He was green-skinned, as all beanish were, wearing a white tunic with matching white gloves and shoes. The wind flowed through his red cape and elegant blond hair.

"Prince Peasley!" Daisy exclaimed. She hadn't seen him for some time, but he was absolutely unmistakable. Peasley was the prince and hero of the southern Beanbean Kingdom, a long-time ally of the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarasaland. Peach must've sent a letter to him.

"The one and only~" He flipped a hand through his hair, brushing it elegantly to the side. He seemed to radiate and light up the place for a moment in his elegance.

Despite how amazing Peasley was, he couldn't get her to crack a smile. She wanted to fight this star eater, punch it in its starry face, and be done with it. She didn't want to keep talking, but it seemed like the only thing they could do right now. There just wasn't enough information about this star eater to counteract it. Just how does one punch stars anyway?

After sending Ninjetta to assemble the heroes, Daisy lead Peasley to the boardroom. Talking was the only thing to do right now, wasn't it? Peasley seemed to light up the room as he entered, flicking his hair to the side elegantly.

"Prince Peasley," Peach greeted him. "I'm glad you could make it. I do hope that the Beanbean Kingdom is fairing well despite the circumstances."

Placing his hands heroically back on his hips, Peasley frowned, shaking his head. "I'm afraid not, my fair and graceful princess. The Stardust Fields simply disappeared overnight a week ago! The whole place, turned into a pit of darkness!" While he was being overly dramatic, placing a hand faintly on his forehead, but everyone sitting in the room knew this news was really that bad.

The Stardust Fields were a relatively important location, serving as the Beanbean district that bordered the Mushroom Kingdom. Destroying that land effectively cut off trade and communication routes between the two kingdoms, but fortunately the Airport was still up and running, allowing Peasley to arrive safely.

"But fear not! I'm here to help!" the prince seemingly perked up. "With the absence of Mr. Red and Mr. Green, I'm here on a secret mission to help end this star eating menace." He did enjoy secret missions, which generally involved investigations and heroics within the Beanbean Kingdom. With the star eater a global threat, Peasley had to travel to execute his daring plan.

"I'm glad to have your help," Peach smiled softly. "We can use every bit of help we can. The situation is growing dire quite quickly. I have yet to hear from the other kingdoms. It is possible they have befallen the same fate as Sarasaland, swallowed whole."

Daisy frowned sharply at the mention of Sarasaland. She was still incredibly bitter about losing it, something that she would never let go as long as it was gone.

"Oh!" the prince exclaimed. "There is one more strangeness which I absolutely should mention. I cannot say if this is indeed related yet, this is certainly a new occurrence."

He withdrew a newspaper from his pocket and presented it to the gathered heroes. The headline read in large curved letters, _Strange Fighter Flies Appear in Hoohoo Mountains_. The photo accompanying the article almost appeared blurred. It shows a fighter fly colored strangely, strongly resembling the star eater cloud that attacked the party.

"Fighter flies only live in the Stardust Fields," Peasley explained. "After the sudden disappearance of the Fields, these strange, dark fighter flies began appearing in the neighboring Hoohoo Mountains. I have spotted these creatures with mine own eyes. It's as though they've been possessed by the night."

Daisy snatched the paper from Peasley's hand, taking a better look at it as she practically pushed it into her own face. "This looks like the same darkness that swallowed Luigi and Mario and the same one that swallowed Chai. Same darkness with dim stars."

"Come to think of it," Peach added, "when the star eater first arrived, the Luma looked like this when the star eater possessed it." This star eater was becoming more threatening by the day. It could possess fighter flies. While they lived in the Stardust Fields, they certainly weren't star-related or even star-like. They were flies. What else could it possess and to what end?

"Could these incidnets be related? They could," Dr. Toadley noted, waving his hands over the crystal ball. The image hadn't changed since the first image had appeared, the one displaying the four stars in the darkness. The stars had grown dimmer in the past few days, however, offering somewhat of a foreboding message.

Professor took the paper from Daisy, pushing his glasses further up his nose as he observed the images. The professor had gotten to know the Beanish and Peasley when he took up residence in the castle town, running a cafe and trying out new inventions. "Fascinating yet frightening," he noted. "I wonder... Will the residents of Sarasaland show up as shadows too?"

Daisy bit her lip for a moment, tensing up before turning to shout at him. "Don't say things like that!"

"Princess! Everyooooone!" Toadbert ran into the boardroom, once again panicked.

"What is it, sonny?" the peered at the toad over the newspaper.

"S-something's happening in Mushroom City, by boogity!" Toadbert replied, nearly tripping over his own words. "It's being overrun by strange-looking ninji!"

…**.**

**Author's notes:**

The introduction of the last of the allies. It looks like Sarasaland and the Mushroom Kingdom aren't the only ones feeling the pain the star eater's caused. The Star Fields are a pretty cool place. The ground has stars in it and everything seems to be star-shaped. Pity it is overrun by fighter flies.

It's hard to say what's happened to the other kingdoms in the Mushroom World. Perhaps they are gone too.


	7. Ninja swarm

The ride to Mushroom City seemed to take forever as the group sat in silence. Only part of the gathered heroes had chosen to go, which included Peasley, Daisy, Ninjetta, Birdo, and Professor E. Gadd. Half the group was the investigative sort, though Daisy more wanted to get out and do something than just sit around and look at data and talk.

Peach had chosen to stay behind and relay any messages which came to the castle. Waluigi stayed with her as an odd form of a bodyguard. He was one of few people to actually survive a disappearing city. Starlow and Yoshi stayed with her as well. Doctor Toadley had returned to his clinic to help calm the hysteria outbreak within Toad Town. News of Sarasaland's near complete disappearance had caused widespread panic. The news about the Stardust Fields wasn't making the situation any better.

For the middle of the day, the normally congested Moonview Highway seemed relatively calm. Traffic was flowing steadily and business continued as normal. The City was far enough away from Fortune Street and Sarasaland that the disappearances seemed more like stories in a book than actuality. It was a place unlike any other, easily the largest city within the Mushroom Kingdom. An epicenter for business, the place never seemed to sleep, and the highway was even busy at odd hours in the night. Buildings rose high into the sky, and the streets were wider than rivers.

The group disembarked from the mushroom car, and Peasley took a moment to marvel at the place. The Beanbean Kingdom had nothing like this. Their cities were smaller and often closer to the ground, but not without technology. The more modern locations were mostly research and travel facilities, the Kingdom's primary research being light-powered technology and advanced blocks. This was something wholly different.

The professor didn't hesitate to whip out his DS and begin gathering readings of the local area. "There are traces of that same energy here," he noted. "Nothing quite like in Chai though. Definitely more subtle but it looks like it's surrounding us, ho ho."

Peasley flew up over the heads of the other members of the group on his flying green bean. Cupping his hand over his eyes to shield from the midday sun, Peasley still couldn't see any signs of darkness. He couldn't tell if anything were out of the ordinary, as the city felt so foreign to him.

"Probably our best bet is to split up and ask around," Daisy pointed out. "I don't see anything, but someone has. Let's meet back here at sunset."

...

Despite the group's insistence, Daisy had chosen to travel with only Ninjetta at her side. The star eater was supposedly after her, but Daisy was never one to play the victim. She liked to take things into her own hands, though she had spent one time captive when Tatanga had overtaken her land. That little incident introduced her to Mario then later to Luigi.

The group had split four ways, taking the four main directions in the city to fan out. There was no way to cover the entire city in half a day unless they had an entire army at their sides. They were relying on most rumors to guide them to whatever these strange-looking ninji could be. Ninji weren't native to Mushroom City, but instead they had migrated in this world. Most had taken up residence in Sarasaland, but without a home, survivors probably scattered.

Daisy folded her arms, tapping her foot as she waited for the light to change and cross the street. She glanced down to see Ninjetta staring back at her nervously. "I'm not a victim, kay?" Daisy frowned sharply.

"I never said that, princess," Ninjetta confessed. "I can't see you ever being a victim. I'm just really worried about you."

Daisy opened her mouth to retort with some stupid remark, but she stopped herself when she saw how worry-stricken her Ninji friend really was. Ninjetta considered herself a sort of retainer, though Daisy claimed she never needed one. She had never pushed Ninjetta away either.

"We're gonna stop this stupid star eater no matter what," Daisy asserted. "We'll beat it senseless until it finally spits up our home and our friends. You'll see."

She seemed pretty confident in her words, and Ninjetta was rather inclined to agree. Daisy was strong and determined, and her home and friends mattered more to her than her own well-being. That was where Ninjetta came in, concerning herself with Daisy's well-being in her wake.

Daisy looked up to see the light change green, stepping off the curb and into the street.

"WAIT!"

Daisy and Ninjetta both turned, finding a rather panicked troopa wearing a hoodie and sunglasses pushing his way between the busy population on the sidewalk. He reached the two girls, leaning over and resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"It's really you, isn't it?" the troopa seemingly marveled at her, looking her over like he was inspecting a ghost.

"Yeah?" Daisy frowned at the troopa, pushing him backwards a bit so she could step back onto the sidewalk. "Anyone who tries to impersonate me gets a swift punch in the face."

He hadn't expected the retort, but he continued anyway, "There's this rumor going around that you'll end up like those strange ninji-" He paused as he noticed Ninjetta emerge from behind Daisy's skirt to peer at him curiously. "AAH! NINJI!" A few of the passers-by stopped and paused, staring at both Daisy and Ninjetta, who chose to simply bury herself in the thick pleats of Daisy's skirt.

Daisy frowned sharply. "Chill out! That's Ninjetta, my advisor or something. Now you seem to know what's going on, buddy. What's this about strange ninji anyway?" She crouched down to level herself with the troopa, leaving Ninjetta to attempt to rebury herself in Daisy dress. The princess patted her ninji advisor reassuringly on the head.

"There's been this strange influx of ninji lately," the troopa replied, motioning with his hands as he explained. "The newspaper thought it was because of what happened to Sarasland, but from what I read, these ninji aren't normal."

"They aren't," a businessman toad chimed in, pushing his glasses up his face. "I've seen them! They're wispy like a storm cloud." Setting his briefcase down, he unrolled the newspaper he'd tucked under his arm and flipped through a few pages. Folding the newspaper open, he handed it to Daisy who quickly looked it over. "That picture there, that's one of them."

The picture was hard to see and looked fuzzy, but there were definite signs of the subject being a ninji. Unburying her face, Ninjetta peered over to see the picture in the newspaper too. "That ninji looks like the shadow that swallowed Chai, doesn't it?"

Daisy squinted at the photo in the paper. "You know, it does. Looks exactly like the luma that got overtaken too." That star eater had been busy since the first day it arrived. It hadn't occurred to her before that the strange ninji could be suffering the same thing that the luma had the day of the party. She bit her lower lip for a moment. "We have to help them somehow, Ninjetta. I don't know how but we have to."

The crowd that had gathered around Daisy fell silent for a moment. Daisy didn't have to say much for most of the people to realize that the ninji who had arrived weren't acting on their own.

"The last sighting was off the Fly Agaric Byway," a young toad wearing a bright red dress offered. "I've been keeping up with all the news lately. I can take you there."

"No need!" a wiggler shouted, crawling up to the crowd then perching up on his hind legs. "Princess, I'm so glad I found you! The strange ninji are swarming Earthtongue Park!"

...

Earthtongue Park, the newest sighting of the strange ninji, was only a few blocks away.

"Who _names_ these places?" Daisy frowned, pulling at her skirt as she attempted to run. Her strides were long but careful not to catch her heels on the petticoats and trip. Several of the bystanders tagged along, though some of the smaller ones had trouble keeping up with Daisy's speed.

Ninjetta hopped along, severely worried about what they would find. "Princess! Maybe we should call the others!"

"Yeah, you get on that," Daisy frowned. "You have that GB thingy anyway."

Ninjetta fished for the thing in her bag. It was small and colored golden yellow with black letters across the front, stating _'GB Advanced Communicator 9001.'_ What a strange name for the thing, but the Professor did have a tendency to name everything strangely. At least it wasn't another SodaPop.

The ninji flipped the device open, pressing the buttons until something happened. The screen flipped on, making some crackling noises before making a popping sound. She really wasn't sure what was going on, as the Professor didn't entirely explain the device in terms she understood. Pressing a few more buttons, she shouted at it, "Come to Earthtongue Park!" She received a few "Okays" and "understood" from the other end before she closed the thing and shoved it back into the bag. It seemed to work so she would just have to keep her princess out of trouble until the other three arrived as backup.

Continuing to be trouble, Daisy skidded around the corner of the building before coming to an abrupt stop. Ninjetta collided into her back, rebounding and knocking into the wiggler behind her.

"Ho~ly crap," Daisy marveled. Before them stood the park. The ground was coated with a strange black fog. The strange shadow ninji stood among it, surrounding a center mass of ninji jumping about like wild animals swarming prey.

"B-back around the corner quickly." Daisy shooed the group back around the building, plastering herself against the wall. That was a few too many ninji to handle by herself, and they seemed rather busy tearing apart whatever was in the center of the mass.

She paused, nervously running her fingers around the engagement band underneath her gloves as she attempted to collect her thoughts. Those ninji were swarming something, perhaps a helpless victim. Her mind drifted for a moment to the possessed luma that had swallowed Luigi and Mario whole. She couldn't imagine what a swarm of ninji could do, but at least their mouths weren't as large.

"Stay here," Daisy instructed, pushing off from the wall.

"W-wait, princess!" Ninjetta panicked, pulling at the bottom of Daisy's dress in a futile attempt to stop her. "What are you doing?"

"Those ninji, they're swarming something or some_one_," Daisy replied, fighting against Ninjetta's pull. She glanced around the edges of the park, spotting a baseball bat within reach. "I'm going to stir them up a bit. Maybe they'll recognize me." It was a long shot, but she hadn't quite wiped the idea from her mind. Ninji had migrated to Chai, taking up residence in the castle town. Daisy was rather accustomed to seeing them and they her. "And if not, I'll beat them senseless if I have to."

Shaking Ninjetta from her skirt, Daisy stepped on the bat, catching it as it flipped up. "Alright, ya shadow ninji!" she shouted at the swarm, brandishing the bat menacingly at them. "Scatter or I'll beat your faces!"

If Ninjetta had lips, she would be biting them right now. She stood firmly next to Daisy, though inside, she was shaking up a storm. Her heart beat so fast she thought it would beat out of her chest.

The shadow ninji turned, almost in unison, to stare at Daisy. "Survivor." Their eyes glowed like faint stars in the darkness, and the shadows oozed from them. The picture in the newspaper had done them justice. "Princess." The swarming ninji had ceased their assault, turning their attention towards Daisy. "Khenet."

Daisy firmly stood her ground, drawing the bat to her shoulder as if playing baseball. "Come on, shadows! Come ta Daisy!" She nudged her ninji advisor, pushing her out of harm's way with her foot. She couldn't have anything happen to Ninjetta.

The shadow ninji approached slowly at first until the front lines suddenly dashed, leaping into the air for a silent coordinated attack. Narrowing her eyes, Daisy took a swing, knocking several of the ninji out of the air and back into the park. The remaining ninji grabbed her shoulders, attempting to gnaw on her arms with their tiny mouths.

Truthfully, Daisy felt terrible striking her own people. Ever since the ninji had migrated, she considered them her own as if they'd always been there. The pidgit and ravens fell under the same category. However, right now, she didn't have much of a choice. The ninji were attacking viciously, even if not by their own will, and Daisy would defend herself and those around her.

Using her free hand, she punched the ninji on her shoulders, knocking them off her though they took part of her sleeves with them. Another wave leapt forward while a third wave moved in for a low assault, gnawing and pulling on her dress. While she continued to stand her ground, knocking the ninji away, more continued to come. Ninjetta leapt forward, hopping on the ninji to knock them off their path. The wiggler who'd come with them began throwing random turnips to thwart the ninji as well.

Even with the assistance, Daisy was becoming overwhelmed. More ninji had emerged from the shadows, replacing the defeated ninji quickly. As they attacked, they chanted 'Khenet' over and over again. Daisy continued to fight against them, ignoring their strange words. Then a flash of light enveloped her, driving the shadow ninji quickly away and back into the dark mist. Another flash of light and the strange mist collected into a large ball then disappeared from sight.

With the park now visible, Daisy and the others now saw the ninji weren't swarming anything but a stray beach ball. Had it all been a trap? Sighing, Daisy flopped backwards on the grass, her dress a shredded a mess.

"Looks like I came just in time, my fair golden maiden." Peasley floated down from behind Daisy on his flying bean. He disembarked, now standing on the grass as he glanced over to where the strange mist once floated. The park had returned to its former state, looking green and lively.

"I thought they were attacking someone," Daisy confessed, leaning forward to prop herself up on her knees. She discarded the bat behind her, rather upset with the turn of events. She wanted to be the hero, not the victim. "Turns out it's just a beach ball."

...

"Another Khenet." The star eater closed his eyes, hearing the ninji return in the shadows. The information they'd sent back during the fight was troubling. The presence of another khenet was troubling.

Khenet was the color of eternal persistence. While the star eater had certainly acquired his own khenet, the presence of another could counteract his work, restoring the world to its original form. This girl certainly possessed the power of khenet and her will was incredibly strong and unbending, even in the face of immeasurable odds. Her allies would prove troublesome as well.

"Two khenet cannot exist. I will have to deal with this one accordingly."

…**.**

**Author's references**

Mushroom City is first featured in Mario Kart Double Dash! It's a big city you have to race through and avoid bomb cars, wiggler buses, and regular autos. Hitting a mushroom car would give you a boost, supposedly, though I'd never tried. Moonview Highway from Mario Kart Wii supposedly takes place on the main highway stretching through Mushroom City.

The two odd names mentioned, Fly Agaric and Earthtongue, are types of fungus. A fly agaric looks a lot like the standard toadstools prevalent across most of the Mushroom Kingdom. The earthtongue looks like a tongue sticking out of the ground.

Mushroom City: Mushroom_City (Mario Kart DD)

Fly Agaric mushroom: fly-agaric/amanita-muscaria/ looks a lot like a standard toadstool in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Olive Earthtongue olive-earthtongue/microglossum-olivaceum/ is a strange fungus that looks like a tongue sticking out of the earth.


	8. Dark stars

"Wow that hole is huge," Starlow marveled at what remained of Fortune Street. The hole was identical to what Daisy had described when detailing the devastation at Birabuto. The hole seemed to go on forever with no bottom in sight. The edges had turned black like a starless night sky.

Starlow ventured out above the gaping hole, hovering above it, leaving Peach and Waluigi on the edge. Yoshi had stayed behind at the castle in hopes of hearing word from the group in Mushroom City. Nearly two days had passed since they left and still no word. While hoping for the best, Peach had taken the investigation into her own hands, venturing out.

"HELLO YELLO!" Starlow shouted at the ravine, then paused, waiting for an echo to return to her. She waited and waited before growing impatient and gritting her teeth, frowning sharply. "It's like there's no end to this! Like a black hole at the bottom of whatever this is!"

Waluigi slouched, staring at the hole. That thing had sucked up his home and his business. But there was one thing missing from this hole and it wasn't the buildings. It was that strange man with the stardust hair. The man had appeared suddenly, chanting some strange words then vacuumed Wario into his cape, then promptly left. Waluigi hadn't made mention of the stardust man quite yet, not quite able to put into words what he saw. He wasn't the most eloquent of speakers, preferring to let Wario do the talking. But Wario wasn't here and Waluigi felt generally unable to vocalize what he'd seen and the pain festering in his heart.

Starlow turned, flying downwards into the gaping hole in hopes of finding some information about it. Professor E. Gadd had taking countless readings of the place, spitting out charts and numbers and things she just didn't understand. She wanted to see the thing for herself, feel the energy surrounding it.

"Do be careful, Starlow!" Peach shouted at her, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify her voice. Like Starlow's, Peach's words didn't return in an echo.

Starlow didn't heed the warning particularly well, diving deeper and deeper into the hole. The world around her grew dark as if she'd flown out of the atmosphere and into space. Stars twinkled faintly in the distance, as if calling out for help.

"Hello?" she called out, journeying deeper into the hole. "HELLO YELLO?"

The faint stars began to twinkle in reply. _Come closer. Help us._

"Who are you?" Starlow shouted. "How did you get down here?"

The stars continued to twinkle and blink, a few shifting around and moving erratically. _Come closer. Help us._

"Well I can't help you if I don't know how you got here," Starlow added, not moving from where she floated. Stars moving like that was a bit unusual, even for a mysterious pit. She had to remind herself she wasn't looking up at the sky.

_Come closer. Help us, _the stars repeated.

Starlow gritted her teeth, frowning so sharply it distorted her face. She was growing frustrated with their repetition. She didn't particularly have much patience for this. "Look, you need to give me something to work with here. I'm not a miracle worker." While star sprites had a considerable amount of magical prowess which could _look_ like miracles, they certainly couldn't do such magic with too many unknowns. It was too risky.

_Come closer. Why won't you help us?_ the stars twinkled, blinking furiously.

Frustrated and thoroughly annoyed, Starlow started feeling that this entirely setup was just a bit off. The faint stars were calling out to her like sirens and she had heeded their call, venturing far away from the surface. Now it was time to jet while she had the chance.

"YELLO GOODBYE!" she shouted, turning towards the small orb of light indicating the opening of the hole and darting upwards, flying as quickly as she could. She had quickly become overwhelmed with a sense of danger. Her disappearing wasn't going to help anyone, though the thought of getting captured and busting the others out did cross her mind. It was a frivolous thought, as she wasn't even completely certain they actually were alive.

Darting upwards, she could hear something shift and rustle behind her. It sounded like an odd combination of wings. Then came the deafening sound of ravens. Upset ravens could scream loud enough to cause localized earthquakes, and it sounded like several were following her ascent. Glancing to the side, she caught sight of the stars moving upward beside her. She couldn't tell if something were crawling up a wall or simply flying upward. It was far too dark to distinguish the difference.

The raven cry bellowed upwards and out of the hole, shaking the nearby ground. Peach covered her ears quickly, attempting to regain her bearings. Waluigi stabilized first, his refined skills from years of practicing tennis working to his advantage. He grabbed the back of Peach's dress to prevent her from falling into the nearby hole. While normally at odds, Waluigi knew that Peach was key in finding Wario and wasn't about to let her go just yet.

Starlow burst out of the hole as quickly as she could, rocketing upwards toward the sky. Behind her followed the 'stars' which had followed her. Now in the sunlight, the stars revealed themselves to be pidgit floating on mist-like clouds instead of carpets. The edges of their bodies had grown fuzzy, spewing out a nebulous black mist. Their eyes glowed yellow as they pursued the star sprite.

"Peach! Take cover!" Starlow shouted as she attempted to outmaneuver the pidgit in the sky.

Ravens emerged from the hole, standing in front of Peach and Waluigi. They too had been overtaken by the nebulous mist, their eyes glowing red as they stared down the human pair. The raven in front opened its mouth and began screaming and crying, knocking both Peach and Waluigi off their feet. Recovering, Peach did the first thing which came to mind: swat the raven with her parasol. The raven effectively quieted, retreating back into the hole. Surprisingly the others followed suit, crawling back down the ravine's walls.

"Victory!" Waluigi shouted at the retreating creatures.

The pidgit suddenly retreated as well, withdrawing back into the hole and quickly disappearing from sight in a puff of black smoke.

"Starlow?!" Peach called out, yet no reply came. The pidgit had taken Starlow with them into the darkness.

...

Daisy's group returned the next day, finding the situation at home wasn't much better than theirs. They had stayed in Mushroom City longer than planned to search for Birdo. She'd mysteriously disappeared sometime the first afternoon and never returned to the designated meeting location. Several residents reported she'd encountered the shadow ninji late that afternoon and fought with them. No one could quite account to where she'd gone. Daisy left a message with the newspaper to print. If anyone spotted Birdo, the newspaper would send word back to the castle as to her location.

After Daisy recounted the ninji incident, Peach detailed the attack by the ravens and the pidgit and Starlow's unfortunate disappearance.

"Could we have been wrong? We could have." Dr. Toadly frowned behind his veil, tapping his crystal ball. The image on the thing hadn't changed since the four stars had shown up earlier this week.

"What do you mean, doctor?" Peach asked, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. The board room had become the center for all their meetings since the disappearance of Birabuto. It had started with a large assemblage of the greatest heroes in the World, but one by one, the heroes were disappearing.

"Had we thought the star eater was after Daisy? We did," Dr. Toadley answered himself. "Yet the last two disappearances _haven't_ been Daisy, and Starlow _is_ an actual yellow star. Could there be more to this puzzle? Yes there could, but it is still entirely unknown. Could Daisy's life still be in danger? It could. I would bet my cap on it."

Daisy frowned, leaning forward on the table. She propped herself up on her elbows, her hands knit in front of her face as she furrowed her eyebrows in deep thought. She looked an absolute mess, scratched up and her dress torn from her skirmish with the shadow pidgit. She'd lost her shoe at some point, choosing to continue along without it.

"So far, all the shadow creatures have been residents of Sarasaland. First the ninji, then the pidgit and ravens. This can't be just some coincidence." Truthfully Daisy wasn't sure where she was going with it, but there definitely was something there. It couldn't explain why Birdo and Starlow had been taken. Star sprites and birdo were both residents in the Mushroom Kingdom and not Sarasaland. Neither was truly known for being migratory.

Peach tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Certainly a valid point. Perhaps the star eater required minions. Sarasaland is known for being particularly resilient and strong."

The land had only been attacked once and stayed relatively unnoticed on the battle scene. It was better known for commerce and business, as well as its excellent vacation spots. The culture was diverse, and the residents endured a vast variety of climates and landscapes. The other kingdoms weren't so fortunate. The BeanBean Kingdom was more rural with great scientific research, and the Mushroom Kingdom seemed to be attacked every Tuesday.

"What about that world engine thing Rosie had talked about?" Daisy pointed out. "Well that garbled piece of a message she'd sent through that luma. What if the star eater-" she cut herself off abruptly for a moment. Her own thoughts were even disturbing her. The others glanced at her curiously.

With a sigh she continued. "What if the star eater requires _strong people_ to power the world engine?" Starlow and Birdo both were incredibly strong people. "And what if after destroying Sarasaland and Fortune Street that it simply ran out of steam?"

Peach bit her bottom lip. Daisy had brought up a point she hadn't or even wanted to consider. She couldn't rule out the possibility, though she wished it weren't true. She wanted her friends to return, not be consumed for some world engine or bad galactic magic.

Sitting on the table, crossing his knees, Prince Peasley considered the situation for a moment. "I got it!" he exclaimed suddenly, hitting his left fist into his open right hand. "These shadow creatures were certainly affected by light. I'll venture alone on a secret mission!" Peasly was rather fond of secret missions, and he undertook them quite frequently. It wasn't exactly a secret mission this time, as he was announcing it, but he was never one for complete secrecy. He liked being loud and glorious as well. "I will search for clues and signs of this engine. I wouldn't stand for putting both beautiful princesses in harm's way again."

"Hey, I'm not some victim, kay?" Daisy prodded Peasley in the back of his shoulder.

"Certainly not, dear golden princess," he agreed. "I've seen you fight and bloody yourself." She was definitely strong, and he couldn't deny that. Regardless, he wanted to do what he could to help out, and that was usually 'secret' missions.

"Oh Daisy," Peach giggled. Her friend was always the rough-and-tumble sort, but right now, such danger wasn't really good for any of them. "Any additional information would certainly help, Prince Peasley," she nodded. "If there is a world engine out there, we must stop it. If you find something, please do not engage it yourself. We will happily fight by your side. Isn't that right, Daisy?"

Daisy emphatically stood up, flexing her arms. "Damn right it is. I want to break that world engine and beat that star eater until it spits up our friends!" She could deal with her home being a bottomless pit but to steal her friends and use them for energy was unacceptable. She could rebuild her home, but she couldn't rebuild Luigi.

...

Prince Peasley left early in the morning, flying on his green bean. He wasn't entirely certain what he was looking for, but the past few days had left him with a lot to consider. These shadow people were becoming a threat, though it seemed the threats were localized to friends of Peach, Daisy included. He considered that friends of Daisy would be targeted as well, yet the only friend who hadn't been swallowed whole with Birabuto was Ninjetta, and the ninji hardly left Daisy's side. This was his only lead, and he planned on visiting many of Peach's closest friends, possibly following the trail of shadow people in the process.

Daisy had risen early, not even bothering to fully get dressed before seeing Peasley off. Still standing in her pajamas, she punched Peasley in the shoulder, threatening to punch him harder if he didn't return alive. Daisy had so few people left alive in her life. She'd lost her people, her home, her entire country, and now the star eater was possibly after her. While she only knew Peasley through Peach, she still wanted to see him return alive.  
_  
_Still not dressed in proper clothing, Daisy flopped down into a chair at the dining room table. Her hair was still rumpled, matching her equally rumpled pajamas. She'd misbuttoned her shirt, leaving a button at the top and two buttonholes attempting to cover the same button about halfway down. She leaned forward, propping her face up with one hand as she turned sideways in the chair, halfway sitting but mostly slouching in it. One leg was properly bent while the other was outstretched, causing her to slouch sideways.

"Shouldn't you at least get dressed, Princess?!" Ninjetta jumped frantically next to her liege. It was troubling to see her so upset, but who could really blame her? The star eater had taken nearly everything from her and was even threatening her own existence.

"In what?" Daisy retorted. "That was my last dress!" It wasn't exactly in the best of shape either. After the shadow ninji had assaulted her, the dress was left torn and bloodied. Even if the toads had managed to scrub the blood out, it still was a shredded mess. She considered for a moment just ripping the dress in two and wearing it anyway as a means to say the star eater couldn't get her down. It wasn't a bad idea, actually.

She tapped her chin thoughtfully, watching the doorway to the dining room. She hadn't seen Peach all morning, which wasn't too entirely unusual. The pink princess was probably busy with trying to assuage the fears of the populace.

A rather large exaggerated screech shook Daisy from her thoughts, literally as she slid from her chair, landing hard on the ground. "What the...?!" she rubbed her butt gingerly, hoping she hadn't done something stupid like broken her tailbone. Stupid pointless bone.

Ninjetta had ceased her incessant hopping, glancing worried towards the balcony. "That really sounded like a raven crying," she pointed out. Her voice was laced with a worry and doubt not that the sound came from a raven but what a raven was actually doing here. The last sighting of ravens had resulted in losing Starlow. That these creatures were capable of capturing a star sprite was frightening.

Daisy scampered to the balcony, peering out towards the town. The streets in closest block in Toad Town had been coated with an eerie black mist, the same mist which had appeared in the park in Mushroom City. The shadows were returning, moving about, attacking something. "Not again!" Daisy quickly hopped onto the balcony railing, only slightly deterred by the ninji yanking on the bottom of her pajamas.

"Princess! That's dangerous!" Ninjetta warned.

Daisy turned, frowning at her. "Duh." As if she wasn't aware of the danger. She'd already thrown herself into the face of danger a few times. Once more wasn't going to deter her. "Now are you coming or not?"

Ninjetta knew fairly well that objecting wasn't going to stop Daisy, so she simply conceded, and the two took a leap of faith off the balcony. Landing safely on the castle walls, they darted forward, taking another leap onto a nearby toad house.

Breaking off a nearby branch, Daisy leapt from the house, swinging the branch madly like a sword. The shadow ravens strayed away from her yet continued to surround Peach and whoever else was trapped within the shadow mist.

The nearby raven opened its mouth, releasing an ear-shattering cry, shaking the nearby houses like an earthquake. Daisy quickly dropped the stick, covering her ears in an attempt to stop the incessant ringing caused by the scream. Despite the deafening pain, Ninjetta leapt into action, landing on the crying raven to quiet it. The creature stopped screaming then receded into the shadows.

Without the noise, Daisy picked up the stick, resuming her assault, knocking ravens away from the frightened toads left and right.

"Daisy, what are you doing?!" Peach demanded, smacking a raven with her parasol. She'd arrived, drawn to the screaming as Daisy had, though she chose to arrive in a more suitable manner, fully dressed and properly groomed. Waluigi had arrived with her and he quickly took to kicking the shadow creatures into submission.

"Protecting this place!" she replied quickly, turning to give Peach a reassuring look. Her words were quick yet confident. She had her mind set. "I can't let them take anyone else!"

Peach frowned at her friend. How stubborn she could be. "They're not after me, they're after you! You're putting yourself in danger!"

"I'm going to get everyone back! Just you wait!" Daisy didn't care about throwing herself into the face of danger. She lived a relatively safe life, away from the kidnappings and villains other kingdoms and lands seemed to have in excess. Even when she stayed at Peach's castle, she remained relatively safe. It was time for her to act. She wasn't going to play the victim.

The shadow ravens had grown impatient with the conversation between the two princesses. Working as if a single unit, they began swarming and piling upon one another, forming somewhat of a raven mountain. While Daisy's back was turned to them, Peach was not, and she began staring at the creatures, fearing what they might do.

Thinking quickly, Peach grabbed Daisy by the sleeve, sharply pulling her away then pushing her straight into Waluigi. "I can't let it end like this." If the star eater needed yellow to complete whatever this world engine was, Peach couldn't let it have her, even if it meant sacrificing herself.

Daisy stumbled into Waluigi, tripping on her own feet before colliding with the wiry man. The collision took the two to the ground. "Sunnova!" Daisy cursed, pushing off him and back up to her feet.

"Peach!" She turned angrily, preparing to return to the fight. She was going to prove to Peach one way or another she was the hero she claimed to be. But Daisy quickly paused, staring at the main road. It was empty. The ravens were gone, and so was Peach. She stared, horrified, biting her bottom lip. "Peach... She's... gone."

…

**Author's musings:**

And the sudden disappearance of two key characters in the story. While Peach and Starlow are certainly two of my favorites, they had to go.


	9. No place in this world

Daisy hadn't moved a muscle. She continued to stare at the empty street of Toad Town where only a moment ago a large battle roared. Shadow ravens had emerged in a wisp of black, starless mist, bringing with them their deafening cries. Then as soon as they'd arrived, they disappeared back to wherever they came from, taking Peach with them.

Waluigi stood as well, gaping with his jaw nearly unhinged as he stared at the street. He wasn't entirely sure how to process this quite yet. This attack was like the one at the gaping hole which had claimed Starlow as a prize. This time, the prize was Peach, and she'd willingly sacrificed herself. "Waaa... Why'd she do that?" The words sort of spilled out without any thought.

Daisy felt her blood boil quickly. Every chance she got, someone was trying to protect her and all she wanted to do was protect them. She turned to Waluigi and suddenly began unloading all her pain and frustration. "Don't you get it?!" Daisy shouted at him. "Peach sacrificed herself for us! We owe it to _her_ to protect what's left of this world and stop the star eater!"

She shouted at him like he didn't understand it. But truthfully, he did. The star eater had already taken Wario, his only family, from him. Waluigi didn't have any land or people to protect. He only had the strip of businesses he and Wario owned on Fortune Street. But that was all gone, stolen away from him, driving him to make a shaky alliance with the princesses.

He couldn't call them enemies, really. He had a secret crush on Daisy, one he never really expressed or told anyone. The more she yelled at him, babbling on about saving the people and insulting how he talked about himself in third person, the more he realized that she'd never reciprocate the feelings. There were times where he wished he could have what Luigi had, but he could never be that goody-two-shoes. It wasn't how he was.

He placed a finger on her lips. She had to stop shouting at him. Her words were nearly as deafening as the screaming ravens' cries. "Waluigi lost too," he interrupted her. "Wario is gone. Fortune Street is gone. I have something to fight for too. No one cheats Waluigi and gets away with it."

She paused. She hadn't stopped to consider how Waluigi was feeling. She never really considered him a normal person. He was more of an enigma who could bend and contort in inhuman ways. But she could now see it, the pain Peach had seen him when he'd first arrived at the castle. She wasn't entirely sure of their relationship, whether or not Waluigi and Wario were even related, but family could exist beyond the boundaries of blood relation. She knew that Wario was really important to him, and now he was gone. His small wedge of land in the kingdom had been swallowed whole, much like her own. He'd been outdone, bested by the shadows. Even his rival was gone. He really had nothing.

Right now, they weren't too different. They'd both lost everything.

She sighed, calming her nerves. The pain was still sharply stinging her heart, but she needed to take a page from Peach's book. She needed to have a bit of compassion. She was never good at such matters, usually wedging herself into a conversation or making demands. Her style of rule was even hands-on as she liked to be among her own people and get her hands dirty. Diplomacy wasn't exactly her strong point.

Daisy placing a hand on Waluigi's shoulder. "Look. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking straight." Neither of them was at this point, but she had to attempt to be understanding. She wasn't very good at this heart-to-heart stuff, but right now, she needed an ally. Fighting alone wasn't working. While she wasn't entirely sure how much thought Waluigi put into things, she knew he was excellent at cheating, more so than anyone seemed to realize.

And if the star eater, cheated, so should they. "Let's work together and stop fighting. It's time we turned this war to our favor. We'll cheat that star eater together."

He didn't take much time considering the idea. She was staring to speak his language. He finally closed his mouth, offering her a confident nod.

...

The world had grown dark, the ground cold beneath her hands. She wasn't quite certain how long she'd been lying face down on the ground or where said ground actually was. Last she could recall was throwing Daisy from the swarm in a last ditch effort to protect the yellow star.

Untwisting herself from her petticoats, she took to her feet, realizing she'd lost a shoe at some point. Kicking the other off, she felt the cold ground beneath her feet. It felt like a castle floor with the consistency of stone.

A light in the distance drew her attention and picking up her skirt, she ran towards it, entering the open doorway. A man stood silhouetted by the lights. His hair was long and his body was covered by a cloak. The screens before him flickered with images of Toad Town and Mushroom City, playing scenes of the recent shadow creatures swarming both locations. Another monitor replayed Starlow's decent into the abyss.

"I am impressed by your persistence, Pink." His voice was deep and somewhat raspy. "I had not expected another to possess such power."

"Who are you?" Peach demanded. "Are you responsible for the destruction plaguing our lands?"

"Destruction is necessary for rebirth," the man corrected her. As he turned to face her, star dust fell from his hair, sparkling against the light of the images.

"Foolishness!" she shouted at him. "How can you throw away all these lives so easily? Who are you?!"

He ignored her demands, studying her for a moment. Her color representation had no word in the ancient language, so she had no place in his plans. "I am called Seth," he finally replied after a moment of silence. "I am a Starborne. I fix broken worlds."

She'd never heard of a Starborne, nor had Rosalina ever spoken of one. "You're the star eater, aren't you?!" It's the only thing that made sense. While no one had mentioned seeing a man before, the images playing behind him were enough evidence against him.

"Such harsh names," the man countered. "I repair the stars. The powers of recreation are immensely strong here, stronger than anywhere else within the cosmos. With these four stars, I can fix all the worlds."

His talk of stars matched up with the stars Dr. Toadley had seen within the crystal ball. There were four stars in the darkness. Peach paused for a moment, considering that if he'd already begun the so-called recreation, perhaps he already had all four stars and Daisy wasn't truly the target.

"Our world isn't broken!" she objected. "It has its flaws, but certainly that is hardly enough to completely destroy it and recreate it in a new way."

"The decision is not yours to make," Seth corrected her, taking a step forward. "You have no place within this new world, Pink. Yet I have other plans for you. I shall make use of your power."

...

Daisy rummaged through the massive closet. She'd left dresses over at Peach's castle before, but the one left in the room she normally stayed in was currently in shreds. Her pajamas weren't in much better shape after the battle that morning with the shadow ravens. If she was going to help save the world from this star eater monster, then she needed something to wear. Fighting in her underwear wasn't going to help anyone.

She'd split up from Waluigi earlier as the two prepared in their own ways for the coming battles. This time, instead of waiting for something to happen, they were going to chase the clues and find the star eater themselves. It was the only option they had left.

Digging deeper into the closet, she discovered an odd dress she had completely forgotten about. It was her old style of wear, bright yellow with white scalloped accents. Quickly pulling it on, she realized why she'd abandoned it in the back of the wardrobe. The bodice was too short and began to rip as she attempted to adjust it. Frustrated, she emerged from the closet searching for a pair of scissors.

Ninjetta watched her curiously as she took to dismembering the dress. She ripped the sleeves off, cutting the edges smooth. Carefully she removed the bodice from the skirt, clipping the bodice just above the thick white sash. She attempted to cut the top evenly, but with the rips, the result was somewhat crooked, and she simply conceded to it. Cutting some more, she cut slits up the sides to allow for more range of movement.

Slipping into each piece, she admired her odd two-pieced creation in the mirror. "Not bad." But even with a dress with high mobility, she needed something to protect herself. If the past battles were any indication, she needed better protection than just bare skin. She turned back to the wardrobe, tapping her lips thoughtfully. There was an excessive amount of pink in that closet, none of which was going to help her at this point.

Then it suddenly dawned on her. Peach had made mention of a room in the lower levels, an armory of sorts which had existed since the inception of the Kingdom. She told Daisy of tales of past knights which reigned in the world in the distant past. Grabbing the pair of heels she'd found in the closet, Daisy took to running down the stairs, Ninjetta frantically hopping behind her. The stairs were spiraled tightly, and the ninji nearly tumbled down them.

Memory served Daisy well and she quickly found the room Peach had detailed within the cellars. It wasn't locked, but it felt like no one had opened the door for centuries. Much of the room was covered with woven tarps coated in a thick layer of dust. Ignoring the dust bunnies, Daisy pulled the tarps away, revealing a rather large armory and several sets of greaves and gauntlets. One set caught her attention. Instead of decorations of engraved mushrooms or stars, the set featured a daisy-like pattern over where the knee and elbow would go. She wasn't entirely keen on history, but she knew that Sarasaland and the Mushroom Kingdom had been allies for ages. It was entirely possible that this set of armor belonged to one of her own ancestors. Unbuckling the armor, she pressed it firmly against her, finding it to fit so perfectly it felt the armor was made especially for her. "Alright!"

...

Professor E. Gadd had busied himself with gathering readings and metrics on the recent attack. He'd spent the better part of the morning sniffing out whatever clues he could from the main street in Toad Town. Noon came and went, and he soon returned to the board room to sort out his findings, bringing Doctor Toadley with him.

The two were debating the findings when Waluigi arrived, dropping a rather large amassment of unlit bob-ombs, bows, arrows, and miscellaneous items on the table. He had armored himself up with whatever soccer gear he could find.

"Ho ho, quite the arsenal you have there, sonny!" the professor exclaimed.

Waluigi offered a confident nod. "It's Waluigi time." The star eater wanted a war, and he was prepared to throw everything he had at it.

The professor wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but it seemed the kid had a handle on things. "Ohoho, excellent!" he clapped his hands together. "We're still analyzing the data, so you'll have to sit tight for a bit."

Sitting tight wasn't exactly one of Waluigi's favorite things to do. He flopped down awkwardly into one of the chairs, pulling out a game system from his pocket. It was a fully functional prototype Wario had made some time ago for his game company. The plan at the time was to manufacture WarioWare units, but it fell through and the design was changed complete. While he wasn't as much of a gamer as Wario, Waluigi kept the working model. Propping his feet up on the table, he fiddled with the game system and turned it on, attempting to best his high score.

Waluigi had barely finished the first level when Daisy burst into the room donning the armor she'd found and the dress she'd disassembled into a battle dress. She strapped a sword to her side, one with daisy carvings in the blade, with two small daggers tucked into her waistband. The backside of the greaves had been fashioned into a small bladed edge at the ankles.

"Do you look ready for a war? You do," Dr. Toadley commented.

"That's right!" Daisy announced proudly. "I'm ready to take the battle to that stupid star eater!"

"Ho ho, just in time too, deary!" Professor E. Gadd announced, bouncing up and down gleefully in his chair. "I believe I found your first lead!"

"Seriously?" Daisy exclaimed, rather excited they were finally making progress on this star eater investigation. "Where to?"

"Ohoho, it's not too far from here!" the professor replied. "The trail leads to Mushroom Gorge, and it's strong. Get there quickly so we can finally catch this thing!"


	10. A new challenger approaches

Mushroom Gorge was relatively close to Toad Town, situated in a deep ravine. The place was most noted for its large toadstools sprouting up from the depths of somewhere below the toadstools were bouncy and the roads were sharp, making it a prime location for a race track. The ravine itself seemed impossibly deep with no bottom in sight, simply clouds and mist obscuring the depths. The season wasn't prime for racing, so the track was currently closed, leaving the place a veritable ghost town.

Waluigi and Daisy arrived by motorbike, coming to a halt where the banner for the finish line often stood. The place felt lonely without everyone there, waiting for Lakitu to wave the flag and start the race. Instead it was the two of them fully armored up and armed to the teeth on motorbikes borrowed from Peach's garage. The two of them looked silly on Peach's bikes, but they took what they could to travel. Neither was particularly fond of pink, but everything Peach owned was color-coordinated.

Ninjetta clung on to Daisy's waist for dear life. The last time they'd gone riding, Daisy had recklessly thrown both of them off the edge of the large gaping hole where Birabuto once stood. With most of the population from Birabuto now gone and now in an entirely different, she wasn't expecting a rescue, silently hoping that Daisy wouldn't be too reckless, especially given her current state of mind after Peach had sacrificed herself to protect Daisy. Lakitu wasn't here to fish them out of the ravine either. They were truly on their own, just the three of them hunting some anomaly.

The Gorge was hauntingly silent. Not even the breeze whistled through the area, leaving the trees still in the afternoon sun. Daisy shielded her eyes from the sun with a gloved hand, searching for any signs of movement. Nothing. She'd been here many times before but not once had she actually been creeped out by the place. Today was the exception.

Professor E. Gadd had gifted Daisy with a DS of her own, colored gold with a simplified interface and communication built in. The DS was the professor's updated version of the GBA communication device, allowing for a multitude of readings of the area as well as transmission to the mainframe for data processing. The unit also functioned as a communication device and locater, if she found herself lost or kidnapped. Fortunately the professor didn't give it some stupid name, keeping it a DS, named after the two screens on the unit.

Pulling the creation from the pouch on her belt, she flipped it open, letting the device do all the work and eventually spit out some readable information that made sense to someone other than the professor. Sure enough, the readings confirmed a strange amount of energy coming from further down the track.

"Looks like that energy's coming from the cavern," Daisy noted, pointing further up the track. The two had ridden the track at least a dozen times over. It was a small track, and the cavern wasn't too far ahead. Almost literally a hop, skip, and a jump away over a few toadstools and a bridge. "C'mon, let's go."

Wordlessly they rode down the path. Had it not been for the roar of the engines, the canyon would have remained deadly quiet. They crossed the bridge, using the bouncy mushroom to skillfully hop the ravines. Daisy pulled to a stop at the cave's entrance, turning off the bike and propping up against the wall. Ninjetta hopped off, returning to Daisy's side.

Waluigi followed suit, taking a moment to peer over the edge of the track. The Gorge had always been like an abyss. It seemed to go forever downward, making it particularly a bad idea to fall off. The Gorge looked as it always did. The mushrooms sprung up from below, poking through clouds which had gathered a ways down in the abyss, perhaps a dozen or so yards below the track. No signs of shadows or stars or mist whatsoever.

Daisy took to observing the edges of the cavern with the DS unit from the professor. It beeped and booped a few times as it gathered information about the surrounding area. The readings it returned were incredibly high numbers, none of which had any particular significance to the princess. They were just high numbers printed in large, bold, red text which usually indicated a bad thing.

The cavern had its normal dark bluish green hue with luminescent fungus and lichen growing up the walls. Giant mushrooms sprouted up in the cavern from another deep ravine below. Normally the mushrooms sprouted up to form two separate paths, one leading upwards and the other straight across, yet today, there was only one path leading upwards to the left.

"Psst. Hey, Waluigi," Daisy waved him over. The missing mushrooms were definitely a sign that the star eater had tainted the place. But why would he want to eat one set of giant mushrooms? Sure fungus was good on salads and burgers, but these were super-sized mushrooms. "You're seeing this, right?"

He approached, visually following where she'd pointed. Her question sounded almost like a trick question. He squinted at the ravine, looking and looking. "There's nothing there."

"That's the _problem_," Daisy pointed out. "We've run this course at least a thousand times to know that something's missing." While Waluigi had missed the most recent kart race, he'd been there the previous time and times before to know that the mushrooms should have been there.

Waluigi unhinged his jaw, slouching over in contemplation. He knew very well about the shadow creatures. He'd nearly been swallowed up when Fortune Street simply disappeared from existence. And he nearly fell victim to the attack earlier today when the shadow ravens ambushed Toad Town. Missing mushrooms, while seemingly stupid, definitely indicated something was wrong.

Waluigi, wanting to be protective of Daisy, stepped forward to observe the missing fungus. Daisy naturally followed suit, wanting to do everything herself and rescue everyone. She knew she needed his help but she didn't want him doing everything for her. She wasn't a helpless victim.

Ninjetta followed as well, one hand on the edge Daisy's skirt. While the two humans seemed brave, the ninji was absolutely a nervous wreck. She tugged on Daisy's skirt a few times frantically. Something wasn't right here.

Daisy grabbed at the back of her dress, pulling it back up while continuing to stare at the missing mushrooms. "Stop it, Ninjetta."

"Um, P-p-p-princess?" she stammered, tugging some more.

"What is your problem?!" Daisy hissed, turning around to pull the skirt from the ninji's grip but suddenly paused. "Uh oh." Partially turned around, she could see the light from the entrance was quickly growing dimmer as some sort of black fog quickly overtook it. She prodded Waluigi in the shoulder.

As the light from the entrance was completely shut off, something seemed to move at ground level. The mist shifted, accompanied by the sound of high heels. Waluigi reached for his bow that had been thrown over his shoulder like a messenger bag. Daisy followed suit, reaching for the sword at her waist.

A stranger emerged from the mist, her features obscured by the darkness of the cavern. The luminous fungus didn't serve well for proper lighting. With a flick of her wrist, the fog dissipated, casting light into the cavern once again. The stranger stood tall. Her blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, her face obscured by a black and purple mask. Her outfit was primarily purple and deep red swirled with stars and dark matter resembling a nebula from one of Rosalina's picture books. The bodice was contoured, two solid straps holding it to her shoulders with a low back held shut with thick laces. The skirt was short with an overskirt crumpled up in the back to form numerous rolls and ruffles. The underside of the skirt looked like a dying night sky, the faded stars barely showing through. The sound of heels came from her knee-high heeled boots, the top cut in the center like a V. She held no weapon, yet that was hardly a sign she was a friendly newcomer.

Waluigi stared at her for a moment. She looked nothing like the man he'd encountered at Fortune Street. He really knew nothing of that man, nor had he seen him again. The only thing he did know was that the man had taken Wario away.

Daisy stared too, though for a different reason. There was something hauntingly familiar about her, but she couldn't put a finger on it. Given the stance the stranger took, she wasn't here for a chat or a race. "Just who are ya? Do you have something to do with these missing mushrooms?!" The mushrooms, if they'd been cut down or died, would always grow back. Yet Daisy was certain the missing fungus was the star eater's doing. "Are you the star eater?!"

The stranger drew a gloved hand to her mouth and cackled quite loudly despite her rather dainty motion. "You know of the Star Lord's glorious work." She seemed rather pleased, as if Daisy had shouted some sort of compliment. "I am Apricot, the Lord's most promising of minions and certainly the most beautiful. I am here to terminate your quest."

**…**

**Author's notes**

Mushroom Gorge is a race track that first appeared in Mario Kart Wii and returns for 7. Hopefully it'll return for 8 too.

E. Gadd's DS is reference to Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon. Originally it doesn't have a name but early on in the game, the professor dubs it the Dual Scream.


End file.
